Nations League, Italy, Luciano Spalletti wants to continue September’s trend
Nations League, Italy, Luciano Spalletti wants to continue September’s trend
The summer page culminating in the European debacle cannot be erased, but Italy can keep winning to try to turn the page. And soì after the away successes against France and Israel, in an Olympic stadium approaching 40 thousand spectators comes Belgium.
Third match of the Nations League group that Luciano Spalletti calls "watershed". And the reasons are different becauseé a success would launch the Azzurri with full points towards the quarterfinals, but above all it would allow them to present themselves as the top seed in the draw for the qualifying rounds of the next World Cup.
"Winning would allow us to consolidate what we have seen so far and do all the things a little bit more calmly,” the coach explained.
We need to follow up on what we did in September". Meanwhile, the breaking point with the past è evident and the new path of the national team now mapped out. Different module (we go towards the confirmation of 3-5-2) and wide open to young people, as shown by the latest convocations that see only one over 30 called by the coach: Di Lorenzo (31).
The average age of the group, in fact, continues to fall and if at the European Championship it was 28 years old, already at the September games it had dropped to 24 and 9 months, dropping further by another 4 months in the latest convocations. "I see these youngsters ready to make the leap to the next level,” Spalletti reiterated, “during training, having to deal with them directly, they prove it to us time after time. Now, però, they are called to the test of the field, quite different from the safe haven of Coverciano.
But the coach has no doubts: "This group bodes well for what will be our future. Especially as a way of being together, being friends and in normal life. I have had some time to think, there are weeks that go by in a moment and hours that never go by, now I have the feeling that I have guys who want to make known what they are made of".
And what Spalletti expects will beà "to see the same courage and attitude as in the last few matches", becauseé the goal" not è forget about the European", butì " work to give our best and if we do that then we will become a great team".
In the background always remains the shadow of a World Cup in which Italy has not participated for two editions. "Going there we feel it as an obligation,” says Spalletti. “It is a tournament that has determined our history, made so many people happy and participating in that competition è something really important but it must not become an obsession". Instead, he speaks of "absolute moral obligation" when he dwells on his daily work at Coverciano, the same work that led to keeping several players out of the last round of call-ups.
"But Zaccagni asked him to stay out to recover from a problem of his own,” he concluded.
Chiesa is not very well, Zaniolo started playing recently and Politano we continue to follow him and we know everything about him". Meanwhile, on the field against Belgium there will be the same eleven as in Paris against France with Pellegrini and Retegui offensive terminals in the 3-5-2.
In the pre-match at the Olimpico, however, more precisely from 8:30 p.m. there will be a tribute to Totò Schillaci, three weeks after his death. First the stadium lights will be turned off and fans will be asked to turn on the flashlights of their smartphones, then on the big screens will appear the face of the former national team striker, followed by an emotional video, while from the Tribuna Tevere will finally rise luminous fountains. A tribute in that same stadium, the Olimpico, where he had scored the first four of his six goals in the World Cup in Italy '90, a haul that earned him the title of top scorer in the tournament and entry by right into the soccer elite.
These instead are the words of Riccardo Calafiori: "Bologna è was the first year where I felt really important, I have indelible memories. The Premier, on the other hand, è a very different league from Serie A, I always prefer to learn with quality and different rhythms, I think I can help the national team in this sense. The first thing that struck me after the European Championships è was just the intensity in matches and training – he reiterated talking about the differences with English soccer -. Then I do not feel I have to say that we have to steal something from them in particular". Finally on returning to the Olimpico after his time at Roma: "Surely it gives me something more to play here".
