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Federico Ricci
The Italy U20s took on their Polish counterparts in Ascoli today where the Poles won 1-0. Federico featured in the entire second half. Other Roma youth products that took part in the match were Federico's twin brother, Matteo, as well as Valerio Verre and Federico Barba. If anyone remembers Mirko Pigliacelli, he was the unused goalkeeper on the bench.
Ricci gave an interview for Gazzetta dello Sport where he mentioned why he stayed at the club this season:
"I thought I had to go away, but before leaving for the tour in America, Garcia said to me: ‘You have quality, I would prefer you to stay in Rome. I could have gone out on loan, I trusted it was the right choice. I'm grateful. Teammates that impress me most? Totti and De Rossi are idols, Gervinho is devastating. What will I do in June? l'll think about it at the end of the season, I will follow the advice of Garcia."
Alessio Romagnoli
The club's new make shift leftback was a part of the Italy U21 European U21 Championship qualifying match against Northern Ireland. Alessio played the full 90 and picked up a yellow card in the azzurrini's 2-0 victory. He played alongside Roma babies Stefano Sabelli and Italy U21 captain, Federico Viviani.
Alessio also shared a few words in an interview with Corriere della Sera:
"Garcia talked to me and gave me his trust even when I didn't play. He told me: your time will come, you'll see. After all, with the extraordinary season Benatia and Castan are having, what could I say?" The young center-back needed to move to the flank as fullback. "It's not my natural position, but that's not a problem. The coach explains and you never lack his support. I only think about the present, day by day, working hard. I would like to stay at Roma, but it's not time to make plans." The Scudetto race is over? "Until the maths excludes it, it's not."
Vasilis Torosidis
Roma's Greek fullback was fit enough to play about 80 minutes for his national side today. Vasilis had a header that hit the crossbar in a 2-0 loss to South Korea.
Miralem Pjanic
Miralem trained with his national team but did not take part in their 2-0 friendly loss to Egypt. Bosnia & Herzegovina manager, Safet Susic, was supposedly asked by Roma to sit out and rest his knee. In return, Susic asked Roma to release Pjanic to his national team a few days before the season concludes. This would potentially rule him out of Roma's last match of the season against Genoa.
Kevin Strootman
Strootman's Dutch side were in a "prestigious" friendly with France. Kevin hobbled off the pitch and was substituted around the 40 minute mark after a tough challenge from Mathieu Valbuena. The French went on to win 2-0. With Daniele De Rossi already suspended for this weekend's match with Napoli, Roma can only hope Kevin's injury was a slight knock.
Radja Nainggolan & Gervinho
Radja came on as a second half substitute for Marouane Fellaini and scored Belgium's second goal in the 51st minute against Gervinho's Côte d'Ivoire. Roma's Ivorian earned a yellow card and was subbed off in the 64th minute, and the visitors were able to score twice in the final quarter of an hour to peg Belgium back 2-2.
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Adem Ljajic & Mattia Destro
Adem was called up to join Serbia's national team again, and featured in just the last 10 minutes in their 2-1 win over Ireland.
Mattia was also recalled to gli azzurri after his lengthy injury spell, and came on as a second half substitute as well in Italy's match against Spain. He played the final 20 minutes of the fixture, picking up a yellow card.
*I found conflicting reports on whether or not Tin Jedvaj took part in Croatia U21's match with Slovenia. He may have done so and picked up a knock. If true, it will likely cause him some discomfort on the bench this weekend.