Second cap for Italian central defender (7)
I believe the answer is:
stopper
'defender' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'second cap for italian central' is the wordplay.
'second' becomes 's' (common abbreviation).
'cap' becomes 'top' (synonyms).
'for' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'italian central' becomes 'per' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
's'+'top'+'per'='STOPPER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stopper that I've seen before include "One blocks" , "Cork - goalkeeper?" , "One who checks" , "Plug for a bottle" , "Perhaps cork" .)