Italy may no longer be a team of household names but Mark McGhee reckons Antonio Conte’s men will still present Scotland with a serious test.
Gordon Strachan’s number two remembers the days when the Azzurri could boast global stars like Franco Baresi, Roberto Baggio and Alessandro Del Piero.
Now the Scotland assistant manager admits he would struggle to pick the majority of the Azzurri squad out of a line-up.
However, Conte still has genuinely talented individuals like World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, his Juventus colleague Giorgio Chiellini and Roma battler Daniele De Rossi to choose from as he prepares to name his final selection for Euro 2016 after Sunday’s clash with the Scots on Malta.
With the Dark Blues using the clash as part of their preparations for the start of their World Cup qualifying campaign later this year, McGhee hopes the Italians’ Chelsea-bound boss names the strongest side he has available.
He said: “We have no control over what the Italians will do or what side they will pick – but they could pick any 11 from the squad they have and I think it will be a fairly robust challenge for us.
“There was a time when I could have named you most of the Italian team and their top players.
“But when I look at their squad right now they are for me not regular household names.
“I admit you could put a team together from their squad right now and I would not be able to tell you for certain it is the strongest line-up they have.
“I imagine the players will be like that as well. They will know some of the players, they won’t know all of them.
“But they will expect them to be as good as the Italians can be, regardless of the 11 named.”
The Scots will take on Italy at the Ta’Qali Stadium – the same venue where they will kick off their bid to reach Russia 2018 when they take on Malta on September 4.
But there will be no swift departure, with a week-long training camp on the island planned before Strachan’s side then head to Metz where they will take on Euro 2016 hosts France next Saturday.
The Scotland management staff hope the chance to test themselves against two of the world’s top teams will be enough to reignite the players’ passions after the pain of missing out on the Euro 2016 finals.
But McGhee confesses it may only be once they are confronted by footage of Europe’s top 24 sides doing battle that it finally sinks into the team just what they have missed out on.
“I hope the motivation is that they want to play against these good teams again regularly,” said the Motherwell manager.
“But I think it will be when they sit down to watch the Euros themselves and the spectacle that will be which makes them even more determined to be part of it next time so that when we start the World Cup qualifying campaign in the autumn they are as motivated as they possibly can be.”
