Italy does not want nasty surprises With Switzerland only to win

Tonight at the Olimpico the “play-off” for direct access to Qatar 2022 Mancini: «Don’t worry, let’s use our quality». Belotti on pole for the attack

Roma

Five months ago: the Olympic stadium, the door of our dreams and our uncertainties. Crossing it with a resounding 3-0 to Turkey is the first blow of self-esteem for a team that in thirty days then puts Europe in line. Tonight: same stage, even bigger dreams, fewer uncertainties but, paradoxically, some more anxiety. There is Switzerland to beat to make Monday’s trip to Belfast little more than a formality and to mortgage the pass for the Qatar World Cup. We are the European champions but two fetid draws keep us hanging there on a destiny that we are able to guide, but which we must also face with the right attention.

Of Switzerland, crushed at the European Championships and then also a bit suffered in a first leg marred by the penalty missed by Jorginho, we must fear not so much the quality, they are worse off than us given the absences (from Embolo to Xhaka, from Seferovic to Elbedi ), as well as a different spirit that has been strengthened along the way, in this wonderfully forged and stimulated by the new Yakin coach. In addition, the idea of ​​sending the European champions to playoff punishment would entice anyone, let alone those bordering on the blue borders.

Mancini, as always, tends to take the pressure off. A method that he introduced from the first day of school and that actually gave him some fruit: «We will have to be aggressive and show our qualities. Anxiety does not go well before the matches, we need to concentrate on something else ». Were it not that the emergencies are different, there would be a team that has lost some big shot along the way. November is a busy season, you pay for injuries. No Chiellini, Immobile and Pellegrini, who will be in the stands tonight, and if the substitute is necessarily Acerbi in defense, the coach’s doubts find a place, just for a change, on the side of the center forward. Belotti is nominated, he is the first choice even if the moment does not smile at him. Mancini spends good words for the Torino forward (“I saw him well, he still doesn’t have ninety minutes, but if he scores two goals in the first seventy, that’s fine with me”), but he hasn’t decided yet. Yesterday’s training and, as a custom and custom of the coach, especially this morning’s will remove any doubts. If not Belotti, the trident with Insigne in the middle and two between Chiesa, Bernardeschi and Berardi. It is useless to go beyond the ifs and buts, Roberto Mancini has accustomed us to change at the last minute.

Details and sensations matter. And instinct too. Italy tonight will not have to play with fire but not too distorted for fear of getting burned. Having won the European Championship does not protect us from unpleasant surprises and in our history from 2017 onwards there will always be a Sweden around the corner, but this is a team that knows it knows. To play well, to have quality, not to fear anyone and to be united. All skills that do not score and that, however, collected together translate into trust. At the Olimpico there will be 52 thousand people, the boost could be important even if Italy will rely above all on its own qualities. So he won a European, so tonight he will take a crossroads without thinking too much that one of the two roads can even lead to crashing. Bad thoughts against excellent intentions: in Mancini management there was never a race. –