The 1-0 victory over Malta secured Italy three points, but there was a lot of criticism from the press for the Azzurri performance: “Criticism is part of the game,” Conte added, “the national team is always criticised. We have to keep working silently and hope that we’ll give our fans joy.”
FIGC President Carlo Tavecchio will attend the match as usual and hopes that Palermo’s support will help Italy in their task: “It’s a fantastic city, their warm support is always helpful.” Azzurri captain Gigi Buffon is about to win his 150th cap: “I hope I will still play important matches. We’ll see in the end how many, I have not set my sights on 200 caps though, as I read somewhere. The best thing in becoming more experienced is that you are more aware of what you’re doing.” The Azzurri goalkeeper also talked about the games against Malta: “Every time we’ve played the so-called smaller teams we’ve been criticised because we haven’t scored a lot of goals. It was surely not our best performance against Malta, but I don’t think that it has been our worst neither. There are two-three teams in our group that will battle for the qualification until the end and I hope that Italy will make it this time too.”
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