ITALY TACKLE ALBANIA: Azzurri look to insatiable 'Rooster' Belotti

Players of Italy's national football team jog during a training session in Montpellier, southern France, on June 9, 2016, prior to the Euro 2016 football tournament. / AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO

He’s known as the ‘Rooster’ with the insatiable appetite for goals, and Albania coach Gianni Di Biasi, for one, will be hoping Italy sensation Andrea Belotti goes hungry today.

“I would have preferred it if there was a foreign striker on top of the Serie A scoring charts right now,” De Biasi told La Stampa earlier this week.

“That’s a full year Belotti’s been on top of his game, but the tragedy for us is that it’s not just him we have to worry about up front.”

Nine months on from their quarter-final exit on penalties to Germany at Euro 2016, Italy look to take another step towards the 2018 World Cup in Russia when they host a heavily-supported Albania side in Palermo today.

Currently joint top of Group G with Spain, but with only group winners automatically going through, it is an appointment the Azzurri can’t afford to miss as they look tentatively, following a 1-1 draw with Spain in Turin last year, towards a possible group decider away to La Roja on September 2.

“There’s no fear, but the result against Albania is extremely important ahead of playing Spain in September,” Italy coach Gian Piero Ventura said at the team’s Coverciano training base.

Yet if Belotti can reproduce the form that has shot him to the Serie A summit on 22 goals, Ventura can rest assured.

In only his second full season with Torino where he has scored 22 goals Belotti is on the radar of Barcelona, Chelsea and Real Madrid.