What are expectations for the beginning of Roberto Mancini’s second stint with Italy?

Friday night is what many hope will be the start of something good between the Italian national team and their new manager. The catch is that their new manager is also somebody who has coached them within the past decade, as Roberto Mancini makes his second debut — if we want to call it that — as manager as Italy faces Belgium in the UEFA Nations League opener for both squads.

It comes at a time when Italian football's stock is as low as it has been in a long, long time and the issues that contributed the Azzurri from qualifying for a third straight World Cup are not going to be instantly fixed with all of 90 minutes of football.

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But the re-hiring of Mancini — who bolted for that sweet, sweet money from the Saudis after leading Italy to the EURO 2020(1) title five years ago — is looked at as one of the biggest things those in the FIGC hope will lead to a turnaround of fortunes as they go through the Nations League and then EURO 2028 qualifying.

Within his first squad, Mancini has done what many expected him to do — stick with some of the biggest names but also introduce a host of younger players who have started the season out well on the club level. Some of those are more of well-known names compared to others, but Mancini is doing what he did the first time around — giving younger players a chance to make an imprint with so much of the roster in flux.

And let's face it, Italy certainly need an influx of new blood to actually try and make things better than they have been for so long now. (Yes, that includes Mancini's first stint considering that is the outlier in what has otherwise been a very bad decade for Gli Azzurri.

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