Italy face their biggest test of Roberto Mancini’s second spell in charge of the national team away against France in the Nations League on Friday evening, and pre-match reports indicate that both Riccardo Calafiori and Nicolo Barella are set to return to the starting line-up.

Kick-off this evening is due at 19.45 BST.

Mancini got his second spell as head coach of the Italy national team underway with a 2-0 defeat on home soil against Belgium last Friday, but bounced back with a more encouraging 4-1 victory away against Vincenzo Montella’s Turkey on Monday.

The Azzurri are in Paris and are preparing to take on France in what will be Zinedine Zidane’s first home match at the Stade de France since taking over as head coach from Didier Deschamps over the summer. Les Bleues have beaten both Turkey and France away from home by 1-0 scorelines over the last week.

Mancini originally named a squad of 34 players for the extra-long September-October international break, but that was cut down to 32 after Nicolo Zaniolo and Giacomo Raspadori withdrew from the camp without being replaced.

Teams are only allowed to name 23 players in their matchday squads in the Nations League, though, which meant that another nine players had to be dropped.

Massimo Pessina, Diego Coppola, Daniele Ghilardi, Honest Ahanor, Eddy Kouadio, Alessandro Romano, Rolando Mandragora, Nicolo Cambiaghi and Samuele Inacio have not travelled.

As of Friday, Ahanor is no longer part of the squad and will instead be available to the Italy U21s ahead of a crucial European Championship qualifier against Poland on Monday night.