AFP, Milan :
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 on Friday.
“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 on Friday.
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 — and a fledgling international career that has brought three goals in five games — his 22-goal league tally, featuring two hat-tricks, has put Belotti on the radar of Barcelona, Chelsea and Real Madrid.
He may be only one goal ahead of Roma’s Edin Dzeko, but Belotti, 23, is the only home-grown striker in Europe — including England, Spain, Germany and France — to sit top of the league scoring charts.
Not bad for a player who, having began his career in midfield, was once practically labelled mediocre by former AC Milan supremo Arrigo Sacchi.
“He’s a great example for younger players because God didn’t bless him with huge talent,” Sacchi said recently. “He has greater attributes like generosity, enthusiasm and passion.”
Adept with both feet, in the air, inside the area and out, what Belotti lacks in finesse he makes up for with bustling energy that is a menace to defenders, and with clinical finishing.
