By Anna Italia
Follow me on Twitter @ItalianSerieA,
Facebook: Anna Italia Page
Instagram: annaitalia2
Italian Soccer Serie A

Italy – Belgium

Italy, not with the expected final game, will be playing for the UEFA Nations League third place.  Italy Head Coach Roberto Mancini is ready and encouraging the team to give all they have to win this game on Sunday 10 October 2021 at the Juventus Stadium in Turin, Italy at 15:00.   It’s a new start for Italy after Spain ended their record of 37 consecutive unbeaten games.

Mancini commenting on the match on the eve of the match during the press conference, “It’s an important match also to consolidate our position in the rankings.  We have embarked on a beautiful path and we need to improve further. We have young players who can play together for another five or six years. I was very proud the other night of how much they had done, both in the first half and in the second half: playing outnumbered against Spain is very difficult, but we managed to be compact and to score. There was a risk of losing by four or five to nil, but instead, the boys did very well”.

Among the news is that Belgium won’t count with Inter forward Romelu Lukaku and neither Hazard both struggling with muscle fatigue. Italy will be without Leonardo Bonucci who got a red card during the Semifinal game against Spain.

The Italian Football Federation (FIG) confirms that Davide Calabria left the camp this morning due to a muscular problem in his right adductor.

Mancini adding, “We have to look at the physical conditions of several players.    We will certainly change something. Trying something new means giving some other players the opportunity to prove their worth. This is important, also because some starters may be missing. And then there may be variations on the game”.

There may then be space for Giacomo Raspadori to feature, who already scored in September against Lithuania in his first match as a starter: “Tomorrow he will have the chance to play, but we must also remember that he is a young boy. He will have a great future, but we cannot give him all the responsibility”.

#Azzurri 🇮🇹

🎙 We spoke with Head Coach Roberto #Mancini as well as #Jorginho ahead of #ItalyBelgium tomorrow – Here’s what they had to say 👇@robymancio #NationsLeague #ITABEL #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/9KOX4gxDqN

— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) October 9, 2021

Mancini commented on the definition of a false nine “falso nove”, the coach pointed out: “You sometimes talk about the false nine, but Insigne and Chiesa are attackers, they are not defensive players. In the first half with Spain, the team was playing well, they had a couple of chances to score goals. Then when we were down to ten, everything changed. It’s clear that you have to give them some possession, but you also have to respect the quality of your opponents”.

Alongside the coach at the press conference was Jorginho, one of the five Azzurri included in the list of thirty candidates for the Ballon d’Or. In a season that saw him triumph with both Chelsea and with the national team, many point to him as Leo Messi’s most credible rival. Roberto Mancini has no doubts that he deserves the award: “Winning it would be incredible”, declared the Azzurri midfielder. “When I started it was so far away that today, being so close to winning it, it’s already incredibly beautiful. Dreaming small and dreaming big are the same thing, so it’s better to dream big”.

Echoing Courtois, Carrasco also diminished the importance of tomorrow’s final, but Jorginho doesn’t agree: “We have just lost a match and we want to get back to winning. We have a winning mentality and after the last knockout, tomorrow’s match is an opportunity. Belgium are a great national team, they have been first in the ranking for years. It’s never easy to play against them, you have to always stay on track and give your all”.

🇮🇹 👉  The Italian team on their way to Turin

UEFA Nations League
Third Place

Italy – Belgium
Sunday 10 October 2021
Juventus Stadium
Turin, Italy

15:00

Referee: Srdjan Jovanović (SRB)
Assistant Referee 1: Uroš Stojković (SRB)
Assistant Referee 2: Milan Mihajlović (SRB)
Fourth Official: Novak Simović (SRB)
VAR: Marco Fritz (GER)
AVAR 1: Christopher Kavanagh (ENG)
AVAR 2: Lee Betts (ENG)
AVAR 3: Pol van Boekel (NED)
Referee Observer: Carlos Velasco Carballo (ESP)

By Anna Italia
Follow me in Twitter @ItalianSerieA,
Facebook: Anna Italia Page
Instagram: annaitalia2
Italian Soccer Serie A

Italy Head Coach Roberto Mancini commenting on the UEFA Nations League Semifinal defeated by Spain on Wednesday 6 October 2021 at the San Siro Stadium.  “It’s a shame to lose like that, but this game will give us strength in spite of the final result and will help us to understand that this really is a great team. Sometimes, certain events can decide games; it could’ve been 1-1 at the end of the first half.”  Italy stopped their 37 unbeaten record after falling in San Siro.

✅   UEFA Nations League Semifinal: Result ITALY 1 – 2 SPAIN, Wednesday 6 October 2021

👉  Regarding the whistling, boos, and attitude of some fans against former AC Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, Mancini said,  “He was playing for Italy tonight and Italy comes first.”

👉  On the sending off of Leonardo Bonucci in the 42nd minutie: “I didn’t see it but Leo needed to pay attention before – when he got booked for dissent. We did well in the second half to score with ten men, and not to concede another.”

Spain Head Coach Luis Enrique said it beforehand: “Italy will need to lose sooner or later.” He was right, too, because, after an unbeaten run of 37 games and a European title, the defeat came to a young and talented Spain side, who they had beaten three months prior. Yet strength can be drawn from defeat too and the Azzurri have shown that before, not least in the wake of missing the World Cup in Russia.

Federico Chiesa never gave up tonight. First, he hit the post and then he gifted Pellegrini the goal to make it 2-1. “We’ve lost for the first time after a lot of matches. We set a world record and, sooner or later, the defeat had to arrive. Spain deserved it tonight. We could’ve been more clinical; we’ll take all the good stuff we did. We ran hard until the end for Italy and for the coach. We won’t stop now. We’ll think about getting back to winning ways and bringing more trophies home.” Bonucci’s sending off complicated Italy’s plans in a game that was poised on a knife-edge until that point: “It was a harsh red card. That first yellow should never be given in international football. To the captain as well. Spain caused us issues when it was 11 vs. 11 though, but the game can always change. Going down to ten men killed it off.”

Lorenzo Pellegrini came off the bench and continued his current goal scoring form, scoring his third for his country: “We’re really disappointed. There’s a lot of regret but these games are decided by the little moments and it didn’t go our way today. We believed until the very end. Spain were better than Italy today but we have a bright future ahead of us.”

Giorgio Chiellini came on after the break too, when Italy were already down to ten men: “We knew that it was going to be a tough game and we need to accept that our opponents cause us problems. We gave it a go until the game but it wasn’t enough today. It’s a shame because we were playing at home. It was an important step for this team ahead of the World Cup.” The third-place playoff is this Sunday but the captain is already looking to the future: “We need to think about this next game and then we have games in November when we need to make it to the World Cup.”

A performance full of pride and love for the shirt 🇮🇹#ITAESP #NationsLeague #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/n6SwR24iab

— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) October 6, 2021