Angelo Ogbonna Makes Italy Debut

Torino defender Angelo Ogbonna made his long-awaited Italy debut, as Italy beat Euro 2012 co-hosts Poland 2-0 in Wrocław.

As you may remember, Angelo was originally called up to the Italy squad by Cesare Prandelli for the friendly match against Ireland in June, but he has had to wait until now to finally make his debut.

Ogbonna gained his first cap as a substitute, replacing Domenico Criscito in the 77th minute with Italy two goals to the good thanks to strikes from Mario Balotelli and Giampaolo Pazzini. He played in his usual position of centre back, as the more experienced Giorgio Chiellini moved to left back.

Understandably, Angelo looked slightly nervous as he made his international debut, but apart from his first touch as an Azzurri player - a poor back-pass to Gianluigi Buffon, he looked relatively assured and helped Italy to maintain a clean sheet and win the match.

His debut was tarnished slightly as he received a yellow card (somewhat harshly) in the 92nd minute, but that should not take anything away from the fact, that a player who has played the last three seasons in Serie B has managed to become the first Torino player to play for Italy since Alessandro Rosina in 2007.

Lets hope he will continue his impressive performances with Torino when he returns from international duty, and gain a place in Prandelli's final 23 man squad that he will take to Euro 2012.

Angelo Ogbonna called up to Italy squad

Young Torino defender Angelo Ogbonna has been called up by Italy coach Cesare Prandelli for the friendly match against the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday, after Alberto Aquilani was injured in the Azzuri's 3-0 victory over Estonia in Modena last night.

Whilst the match against Giovanni Trapattoni's Irish side is only a friendly, and Ogbonna is by no means guaranteed to gain his first cap in the match, it certainly shows that Prandelli thinks highly of a player who has only played 23 Serie A games in his career, with many of those coming as a substitute. In a season of disappointment for Torino, the continued emergence of Ogbonna has been a positive, as the vice captain was arguably Toro's best player this season, and is expected to make a big money move to a Serie A club after Torino's failure to gain promotion.

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