Qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup: after the draw with Bulgaria Azzurri tomorrow in Switzerland Mancini now finds Chiellini and is also tempted by Locatelli and a different attack
the challenge
torino
A pause and it’s little trouble. The return of the champions is not a jarring in the spirit – 27 blue shots towards the Bulgarian goal – but in the score that immediately puts us at a crossroads: not losing tomorrow in Switzerland is the only condition for not having to tremble in the I walk towards Qatar 2022 where the best of the individual groups will arrive, leaving the guillotine of the play-offs at the end of March to the latter. Talking about a crossroads for an unbeaten national team for 35 matches and on the top of Europe only on 11 July may seem too ungenerous, but it is an objective fact.
Switzerland is four points behind Italy, but with two less challenges and if in twenty-four hours it should even go badly, the reds of the new coach Yakin could show up at the Olimpico on November 12 with a foot and a half in Qatar. We are talking about a world trap. And not only for Mancini and his boys if it is true that Spain (“Let’s walk on the wire”, as the coach Luis Enrique after the knockout in Sweden), France and Germany are more or less short of breath after a piece of the journey within the journey qualifications.
How can the Italian battleship erase a bit of lightness in attack and a bit of affectation in between in two days? “We are all champions, even those who did not come with us to Euro 2020”, the signature of the blue coach on the entrance ticket to Coverciano, the first moment of post-triumph work. And, now, the depth of the men available can be the sweetest of assists to go beyond the danger of St Jakob-Park in Basel. Italy, tomorrow, will embrace its captain Chiellini and the distracted Florenzi should give way to the Neapolitan Di Lorenzo: the defense only danced once with Bulgaria and it was a fatal dance. In the middle, Barella gave signs of great vitality and Jorginho got back in the chair: so the possible, single, change could touch Verratti out for Locatelli who, during the European Championships, made two of them. The real puzzle is ahead: will the rejection of Immobile be certified with Ciro on the bench? Mancini taught us how to manage a group and he will reflect to the last on whether or not to sacrifice the Lazio player: Kean is an option like the “light” trident without a professional nine. Taking for granted the reconfirmation of Chiesa, the temptation of our technical commissioner is to bet on the Roma fans Pellegrini and Zaniolo. Failing in Basel would plunge us into psychodrama with the ghosts of November 2017 – playoff with Sweden for the World Cup in Russia – occupying our thoughts. Switzerland does not have Xhaka, no-vax and stopped by Covid, the Atalantine Freuler and Embolo. But Switzerland is already a crossroads. –