Rovella on Italy ‘heart’ and midfield battle with Germany’s Musiala

Nicolò Rovella believes Italy can get the better of Germany with ‘heart’ in the Nations League quarter-final and looks forward to the midfield battle with Jamal Musiala.

It kicks off at San Siro at 19.45 GMT.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.

The second leg will be in Dortmund on Sunday evening and the winner goes through to the Final Four of the Nations League.

Rovella is one of the surprises in Luciano Spalletti’s line-up, chosen rather than Samuele Ricci of Torino to pull the midfield strings.

Big possibilità for Rovella in Italy XI

“It is certainly exciting, but I am calm, we prepared very well for this match and will certainly have a great performance on our own turf,” Rovella told RAI Sport.

It is going to be quite the midfield battle between the Lazio player and Bayern Munich talent Musiala in that midfield.

“Musiala is certainly a great player who is doing wonderful things, we’ll see how it goes on the pitch.”

Rovella grew up just yards away from the stadium in the San Siro area of Milan and came here as a child, so starting tonight for Italy is a dream come true.

Germany have had the better results against Italy in recent years, but the biggest games tended to go the way of the Azzurri.

“Italy has something extra in its heart, so despite the fact we are up against a strong opponent, I think we can do more with that heart.”