Italian football is currently going through a very interesting phase. At club level, runaway Serie A leaders Napoli are arguably among the best teams in Europe right now, evidenced by their current Champions League run.
The quarter-final sees them paired with AC Milan and with Inter also in the last eight, Italy has the most representatives of any country still in the competition, coupled with the fact Juventus and Roma remain in Europa League contention.
At international level, the Azzurri are of course reigning European Champions following their penalty shootout triumph over England at Wembley in 2021. However, despite a 37-match unbeaten run between 2018 to 2021, they have failed to qualify for the last two World Cups – infamously losing their decisive play-off against North Macedonia to miss out on Qatar 2022.
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Despite this, Italy topped their Nations League group – featuring Germany and England – with the finals to look forward to this summer. But ahead of the commencement of qualification for Euro 2024, where they coincidentally face England again in their opening qualifier in Naples, Eurosport Italy’s Davide Bighiani says the World Cup failures still weigh heavily.
“There is a lot of pressure on Roberto Mancini,” he said. “He remained at the helm of the national team thanks to his success at the European Championships, but the fans won’t bear another disappointment after only watching the last two World Cups on TV.
“The No. 1 goal is and must be to return to the World Cup.”
“At the moment there isn’t much trust around Italy. Mancini has to rebuild the group and the ‘human material’ available isn’t much and there isn’t much quality.”
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The fall following the Euro win and lengthy unbeaten run was a dramatic one. During their qualification campaign for Qatar, Mancini’s team endured two draws against Switzerland, bizarrely both of which saw the normally reliable Jorginho miss a penalty in each game, before a 0-0 shutout against Northern Ireland, forcing them into the play-offs.
But then disaster struck…
“On March 24th, 2022, the world collapsed,” says Bighiani, referring to the shock home defeat against North Macedonia that put an end to Italy’s World Cup dreams. “The lowest moment in our recent history.”
Italy did bounce back with their Nations League success but 2022 also saw a heavy 5-2 defeat to Germany in that same competition, as well as a 3-0 trouncing in the CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, or ‘Finalissima’, against eventual World Cup winners Argentina.
Bighiani suggests that any more major slip-ups could prove fatal for Mancini in the Azzurri dugout.
“If a debacle were to occur on the way to the European Championships or in the European Championships themselves, then his place would already be at risk.”
For Mancini’s part, speaking ahead of the Euro qualifiers, the former Manchester City boss has bemoaned the talent he has at his disposal as far as building a winning squad is concerned. With very few big, star names to call upon domestically, this has even led to a call-up for Argentinian-born striker Mateo Retegui for the upcoming qualifiers. Bighiani sympathises with the manager in this regard.
“Absolutely yes,” he says. “The strongest teams [in Serie A] have at most 1 or 2 Italians in their starting 11 and even the mid-level teams prefer to invest in foreign names rather than promoting young Italians.
“[Gianluigi] Donnarumma, [Giovanni] DiLorenzo, [Francesco] unripe, [Alessio] Romagna, [Leonardo] spinazzola; [Nicolo] Barella, Jorginho, [Marco] Verratti, [Domenico] Berardi, Retegui, [Lorenzo] Pellegrini – this is the line-up facing England on Thursday. What names do you know? What names scare you? Donnarumma and Verratti are probably the best-known names, but up front, it is a disaster!”
Aside from England, Italy also have to face Ukraine, Malta, and recent foes North Macedonia in their group.
While the top two advance directly to the tournament with no fear of another play-off banana skin, recent failures mean concern remains that they could yet miss out on another tournament.
“It’s our greatest fear,” confesses Bighiani. “Watching other people’s matches (in tournaments) on TV is a practice we’d like to avoid, at least this time.
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