Tomorrow is very hard in Italy…
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Roberto Mancini
Consternation, disillusion, surprise, surrealism, disappointment… Words abound to define Italy’s elimination yesterday, but yet the Italians are speechless and can’t believe it: modest North Macedonia released the Squadon his land, with a goal in stoppage time.
While the previous one was golden, this new page in the history of Italian football written by the men of Roberto Mancini is dark, as if the old demons and the trauma of the elimination in 2017 have pointedly and incomprehensibly resurfaced.
This elimination, given the context, is perhaps worse. After the rout once morest Sweden, Gian Piero Ventura is replaced by Roberto Mancini. And there, the former Inter and Manchester City tactician will directly revive a sick team that has just failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years. The Azzura team indeed achieves a 30 out of 30 in the qualifiers for the Euro and scored 37 goals for only 4 conceded. Mancini takes his time to find the right players, the right automatisms. Successive no less than 63 players including 32 novices, including totally unknown names (Vincenzo Grifo, from Freiburg, for example). Renewal is on the way.
A quick return to the top
Breaking loose at the Euro with a somewhat “hybrid” status, half-favorite, half-outsider, the National destroys Turkey (0-3), Switzerland (0-3), then recovers to the young Pessina of Atalanta to make the 9 out of 9 once morest Switzerland (1-0).
Abused once morest Austria, it’s once more Pessinaand churchwhich save Azzurri who then have our Red Devils in a solid and deserved victory (1-2). Next comes Spain, with an absolutely monstrous Chiesa, and that victory in the final with that goal of Bonucci which sounds like a symbol.
The symbol of a rediscovered team, which makes the perfect mix between youth and experience, between wisdom and passion. Italy is European champion and no one doubts its participation in the next World Cup as it seems to have regained its former prestige. From a team in total decline, it returns to the status of a great nation in world football, with an unbeaten record as a bonus.
© photonews
Italy
This (s) famous penalty (s) of Jorginho
While she had started her qualifying campaign for the World Cup before the Euro, with a 9 out of 9, the Squad disillusioned and lined up two draws in a row once morest Bulgaria and then once morest Switzerland. A victory later once morest Lithuania, and it is already the match at the top once morest the Born awaiting Mancini’s men. While the score is 1-1 and we are in stoppage time of the match, jorginho inherits a penalty. Considered an exercise specialist, even the best shooter in the world today, the Chelsea player rushes … and sends the leather over, as in the first leg …
Then it’s total chaos. 0-0 once morest Northern Ireland, and that’s it Squad poured into the World Cup play-offs, with the tragic consequences that we know.
A collective failure…predictable
It was THE first quality of this Italy when it entered the running at the Euro and following its final victory: no stars, just a well-established and united collective. If that was its strength, in the end it was its weakness. Because, already at the Euro, the Italians had to rely on the individual exploits of Chiesa and Pessina, the frantic races of Spinazzolathe decisive judgments of Donnarumma,… In the end, if the DNA of the team was collective coherence and a more forward-looking game than usual, we have the impression that this has been lost over the matches of qualification. Without a star capable of creating the difference (Chiesa is undeniably one, Stretcher too, Immobile can’t do it too much with the Nazionale…), Italy only scored 13 goals in their qualifying rounds and above all missed a lot yesterday, with a Berardi clumsy as ever.
The future raises questions
If the future at the level of the workforce can always give a glimpse of some beautiful things (with in particular Breakers and Scamacca of Sassuolo), the choice to maintain Roberto Mancini will prove decisive. It’s all regarding knowing whether this historic disillusion – this is only the fourth non-participation of the Squad at a World Cup, the last great nation to have missed this competition was France, in 1990 and in 1994 – will be seen as a simple misstep in the reconstruction of the identity of a selection which still needs stability, or if prestige and emotion will take over and demand, despite the victory at the Euro once more, a radical change.
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Mancini
