Roberto Mancini: All the Stats from His First Stint as Italy’s Head Coach

It had been since Marcello Lippi’s return in 2008 (which was decidedly more low-key than his first triumphant stint, capped by victory at the 2006 World Cup) that the Italian national team had not once again appointed a head coach who had previously led the Azzurri. Roberto Mancini led the Azzurri from 2018 to 2023 and is one of only five head coaches to have won a major tournament with Italy (the others are Vittorio Pozzo, Ferruccio Valcareggi, Enzo Bearzot, and Lippi himself).

Mancini’s record as head coach, despite the conclusion of his first stint coming just a few months after the bitter disappointment of failing to qualify for Qatar 2022, is nonetheless impressive: the Jesi-born coach ranks fourth in win percentage among head coaches with at least 20 matches in charge of the Azzurri (60.66%; only Pozzo, at 66.32%, Arrigo Sacchi at 64.15%, and Edmondo Fabbri at 62.07%), and he ranks third overall in total wins (37, compared to Pozzo’s 63 and Bearzot’s 40).

Furthermore, with Mancini at the helm, the national team has scored 123 goals in 61 matches—an average of 2.01 goals per game—which places the former Bologna playmaker, Sampdoria, and Lazio in third place behind Pozzo (2.45 goals per game) and Fabbri (2.17), coaches active in eras when soccer was a very different game from today’s. The figures for goals conceded are also impressive: with 0.74, Mancini ranks fourth behind the “usual suspects” Pozzo and Fabbri (0.44 and 0.62, respectively), as well as the 0.67 of the Sacchi era.

Mancini’s debut during his first stint with the Azzurri dates back to May 28, 2018, in a friendly match played in St. Gallen, Switzerland—curiously against Saudi Arabia: It ended 2-1 for the Azzurri, with Mario Balotelli and Andrea Belotti scoring on that occasion.

Roberto Mancini’s Italy enjoyed one of its most brilliant stretches on the road to Euro 2020. The 5-0 victory over Liechtenstein allowed the head coach to tie the record for consecutive wins set by Vittorio Pozzo in 1938—a record that Mancini himself broke with subsequent matches in which the Azzurri defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina and Armenia.

The 9-1 rout of Armenia was another symbolic milestone, marking the largest margin of victory ever in a European Championship qualifying match. With that result, in fact, the Azzurri also set a new all-time record for an unbeaten streak in European qualifiers, reaching 40 consecutive matches without a loss.

Everything changed, however, in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers: the national team lost its attacking edge and finished the group stage undefeated, but with one fewer win than Switzerland—a difference that proved decisive. Although they advanced to the playoffs, Italy crumbled under the weight of the pressure and was defeated in Palermo by North Macedonia, thus being forced to miss the World Cup for the second time in a row.

Looking at the numbers, Mancini remains the head coach with the most medals in the history of the national team, having reached the podium four times in competitions recognized by FIFA or UEFA: Aside from Euro 2020, he has in fact won two bronze medals in the Nations League (2021 and 2023) and a silver medal as the runner-up in the “Finalissima,” the CONMEBOL-UEFA Cup played against and lost to Argentina in 2022.

Behind him is Pozzo with three medals (all gold—at the World Cups in 1934 and 1938 and at the Olympic Games in 1936), while Ferruccio Valcareggi (gold at the 1968 European Championship, silver at the 1970 World Cup) and Cesare Prandelli (silver at the 2012 European Championship, bronze at the 2013 Confederations Cup) have each won two.

World champions Bearzot (1982) and Lippi (2006) have one each, as do Augusto Rangone (bronze at the 1928 Olympic Games), Azeglio Vicini (bronze at the 1990 World Cup), Arrigo Sacchi (silver at the 1994 World Cup), and Dino Zoff (silver at the 2000 European Championship).