Bulgaria today lost to Norway, whilst Croatia drew against Azerbaijan. “There’s no such thing as an easy match in football nowadays, the game is evolving everywhere. We just have to think about ourselves and put in a better performance to beat Bulgaria. Will that be enough? It’ll have to be.”
Going back to the match, Conte emphasised: “In games like this, you have everything to lose. Malta have a very quick striker in Effiong. I would have preferred to have scored earlier to calm the nerves. We tried to dictate the game with our own style of play in the first half. A football match lasts 90 minutes, and anyone who was expecting a goal fest was not paying attention to what I said yesterday.” Conte then diverted his attention to Sunday’s game: “We have another match in three days, we need to rotate players and our forward players need to play closer to Pellè. Gabbiadini played very well, so it was a shame that his effort hit the bar. Only a win against Bulgaria will be enough to make me feel at ease.”
Graziano Pellè scored a “crucial” goal, perhaps aided by a handball. “It was a tough game, everyone assumes that it’s easy to play against Malta but that isn’t the case. We are happy with the victory and I’m pleased with my goal. Did I use my hand? I can’t remember, but I’ll be able to tell you once I’ve seen a replay. It would have been a completely different match if we’d been able to score earlier, but the ball just didn’t want to go in. The most important thing is that we won, but now we need to improve a lot. Every match will be tough, and we have to take to the pitch in the knowledge that we need to stay patient, because the goal will come eventually.”
According to Darmian, Italy played much better in the second half: “Everyone took the victory for granted, but that’s not how football works. It wasn’t easy to play against a team with eleven men behind the ball. In any case, we changed it up in the second half and we could have won by more.” *Schedule (all times CEST) Friday, 4th September
17:00  Training session at Coverciano’s Federal Centre (closed to the press) Saturday, 5th September
10:00  Training session at Coverciano’s Federal Centre (closed to the press)
16:00  Travel by plane to Palermo
18:30  Training session at Renzo Barbera stadium (open to the press for the first 15’)
Press conference after training session(coach and one player) Bulgaria’s schedule:
20:00 Press conference (Head coach and one player)
20:30 Training session at the R. Barbera stadium (open to the press for the first 15’) Sunday, 6th September
20:45 European Qualifier ITALY vs. BULGARIA (Renzo Barbera stadium)
Press conference after the game ]]>