Aston Villa‘s new full-back Matteo Ruggeri was on a high at the start of the week having made his first senior appearance for Italy.
After missing out on making his debut appearance for his country back in March 2025, when he was called up but not used, Roberto Mancini gave Ruggeri, 24, his maiden cap in the 4-1 win over Turkiye on Monday.
It was a big win for Italy, and for Ruggeri, the 24-year-old left-back marked the day with a ninth-minute assist for Alessandro Bastoni from a corner kick.
However, the dog-eat-dog nature of international football caught up once again with the former Atletico Madrid ace on Friday as he found himself back among Mancini’s substitutes.
Ruggeri was dropped from the starting line-up for Italy’s Nations League clash with France, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
But why did Ruggeri get relegated to the bench after such an impressive debut versus Turkiye?
Why Matteo Ruggeri is being ‘threatened’
Mancini didn’t initially name Ruggeri in his Italy squad for this round of Nations League fixtures and only called up the Aston Villa left-back last week because Inter Milan’s Federico Dimarco withdrew due to injury.
Still, Ruggeri was straight into the starting line-up to play Turkiye but then found himself cast aside on Friday night in Italy’s draw at the Stade de France.
Ahead of the match, Rai News explained that Arsenal left-back Riccardo Calafiori was “threatening” Ruggeri’s spot in the starting line-up.
Gazzetta dello Sport then explained that Calafiori ended up replacing Ruggeri at left-back for the match in Paris; not only suggesting that Ruggeri was being rotated out of the side, but also that Calafiori is still above him in Mancini’s pecking order.
EuropaCalcio wasn’t shocked by Calafiori starting, but was also impressed by Ruggeri’s display against Turkiye at the start of the week. They said before kick-off: “On the left, despite Ruggeri’s excellent performance against Turkiye, Calafiori will likely return from the start.”
Was it harsh to drop Ruggeri?
Ultimately, it does seem as though Ruggeri will be a bit gutted to see that his display against Turkiye counted for very little when it came to Mancini’s team selection versus France.
Stats by Sofascore show that on top of his assist, Ruggeri made 12 defensive contributions against Turkiye in Bursa.
He won two of the three tackles he challenged for, made three interceptions, completed five clearances and also blocked one shot.
He also won 100 per cent of his four duels (three on the ground and one in the air) and wasn’t dribbled past once.
On top of that, he had a 90 per cent pass accuracy and made one key pass, so he was effective both on and off the ball for Italy.
Meanwhile, in Italy’s defeat to Belgium last week before Ruggeri was called up, Calafiori only made three defensive contributions in 90 minutes – failing to win the only tackle he made – and also failed to complete any dribbles.
He did make three key passes and had a pass accuracy of 98 per cent, but clearly, Ruggeri is the man you want to turn to when you need more help defensively based on his numbers against Turkiye.
So why wouldn’t he stick with the defensively better option to take on France?
