International friendly preview: Ukraine v Italy

Fiorentina striker Alberto Gilardino will captain an experimental Italy team in their friendly against the Ukraine on Tuesday.

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli will make seven changes to the side that beat Slovenia 1-0 in Euro 2012 qualifying on Saturday.AC Milan’s Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini of cross-city rivals Inter come out of attack, to be replaced by Gilardino and Giuseppe Rossi of Villarreal.Bologna’s Emiliano Viviano will start ahead of regular captain Gianluigi Buffon, who will surrender the armband to Gilardino.”It is a great reward that the national team gives me,” Gilardino said. “It is an honour considering all those players that have captained the national team in the past, like Fabio Cannavaro.”Only defenders Christian Maggio and Giorgio Chiellini and midfielders Roberto Aquilani and Riccardo Montolivo have been retained from the starting line-up against Slovenia.Ukraine will also be without some of their big names for the match in Kiev.Dynamo Kiev striker Andriy Shevchenko is unavailable for personal reasons, while defender Dmytro Chygrynskiy and midfielder Yevhen Konoplyanka are both missing through injury.Defenders Taras Mikhalik and Igor Oshchypko and forward Artem Milevski will also be sidelined.Yuriy Kalytvyntsev’s side will be aiming for the first win since September, when they defeated Chile 2-1 in a friendly.”Italy are still difficult opponents even though they are going through a generational change,” Ukraine midfielder Anatoliy Tymoshchuk said.”Our opponents will go on the attack, so it’s important to take our chances.”Ukraine have never beaten Italy and lost five of the six meetings between the two countries.