Antonio Conte wants to see the maximum humility and focus from his players when they face the Republic of Ireland in a match which doesn’t count for Italy’s standing in the group. Thinking ahead to the round of 16 is being strongly discouraged. “After the Sweden game, I changed my mind about some things, the squad needs balance and selections show how worried we are about certain games. I don’t consider this game to be meaningless and it doesn’t help to create starters and reserves. We must be humble, conscious of our abilities and our weaknesses. We’ve started a journey in the right way, but we can’t forget where we started from. It would be stupid to fall in such a trap. We can’t ever fall off the main road.”
The Azzurri had already booked their ticket to France when they faced Norway in their final qualifying fixture but this didn’t affect the performance. “I remember we won by pressuring them after they took the lead and they didn’t qualify,” added Conte. “I know very well that a defeat tomorrow would throw us out of gear and we must look to avoid that.” Players who have featured less will get a chance against Ireland and Conte has confirmed that he has faith in his squad. “There won’t be nine or five changes as these can create divisions in the group, you can come up with the number. We don’t have starters and reserves, there are 23 players who win or lose together along with me and my staff. I expect to see a team performance.” Antonio Candreva will certainly sit out after injuring his right hamstring against Sweden. “He worked well today on the pitch, I am confident he will recover for the next game but we will also look at alternative options.”
Before entering the media room, the coach took a quick look at the pitch and saw it was in poor condition first hand: “The European Championship has been organised very well but this pitch isn’t in an ideal state. However, I don’t like to give players excuses and the pitch is the same for both teams.”
Gigi Buffon accompanied Conte at the press conference after recovering from his fever and he will take a place on the bench tomorrow as Salvatore Sirigu starts. “I am well, I had flu for three or four days, including before the Sweden game, I think I won’t play and that’s the right decision.” With all his experience, the great Italy goalkeeper knows it takes little to undo good work. “If we arrive lacking something then we risk taking a step backward and we can’t allow that to happen. We have created a privileged situation for ourselves where we have qualified after two games and we know what we did to get there and that we must keep it up to achieve more. It’s not normal for Italy to have a chance to prepare ahead to the next round because we usually qualify at the last minute of the last game.”
Buffon has always had a close relationship with the coach. “He’s the ideal coach for how he knows how to create a group and how he set his sides out tactically. Everyone must make themselves available even if they don’t play much and they have to completely believe in what the boss says.” Few believed in Italy’s chances at the start of the tournament. “Expectations were low and people said that we’d return immediately but fortunately it hasn’t gone like that and this has boosted our sense of pride. All 23 of us have created a sole way of thinking and working with the aim of surprising. We’re creating a group spirit in order to achieve results.”
Source: figc.it