From Gennaro Gattuso a warning to'Italy: "Nobody puts red carpets"

Gennaro Gattuso rejoices for his Italy side, victorious again and in the playoff final after beating Northern Ireland 2-0 in Bergamo. The national team coach, however, is still keeping his concentration level high as he awaits the challenge with Bosnia that will be decisive for the long-awaited qualification for the 2026 World Cup. And thus the eventual return of the Azzurri to the event for the first time since the distant 2014.

“We have to thank these guys,” commented Gattuso, reached by the microphones of ‘Sky Sport’. “What I feel is just a gigantic sense of responsibility. I must also say that Italy struggled so much in the first half against Northern Ireland. However, we knew it was going to be like that. No one puts red carpets in front of us, at the level of the genre, the leagues where the various players play don’t matter.”

There was then no shortage of criticism of the albeit good Italy seen against Northern Ireland. “They were poisoned and tried to dribble. But our biggest mistake was lowering Locatelli in the build-up phase,” Gattuso noted. “At that moment we were too flat on the pitch, but when you manage to get the ball rolling in a more varied way then performances like ours in the second half come out. I didn’t want to lose energy, that also explains the choices I made. Including leaving at home a lot of players who deserved it, like Orsolini, Bernardeschi or Zaniolo.”

Hence some of Gattuso’s praise for some of his national team’s individuals. “Bastoni should not have played today, 99 percent. Mancini trained, but he was in severe pain. Vicario, Di Lorenzo and Zaccagni were not available, but they came to the stadium. Never booing.”

Now, ahead of Bosnia, there could also be some news. “We will see, we have five days to decide. We will go to our home, to Coverciano, and we will see where we stand. Today with five changes you have a 50 percent chance of changing games. But I have nothing to complain about, this Italy is made up of live guys. We have worked a lot on ourselves, at the time of the drubbing against Norway we melted like snow in the sun after the first adversity. Today it was not like that,” Gattuso added.