The blue coach respects his opponents but believes in the group: “We are careful and …”. Whoever wins is in the final
ROME Every match was an injection of confidence, a step forward in an accelerated maturation process. And after five victories in a row, after having laid out Belgium number one in the world, there is now a solid awareness in the blue group: this Italy is really strong and capable of playing for the final of Euro 2020. The last obstacle is Spain, the national team that for over a decade has been an admired but difficult to imitate model. And this time the Azzurri are facing him without the fear of those who risk taking a football lesson, like the one in 2017, on the road that led away from the World Cup. “We are Italy, we hope to make Italy”, he said. clarified Roberto Mancini, who opened a new path on the ashes of that failure. “We started it and we have to finish it, but from here to the end there are Spain and a possible other match”, explained the coach, who rejects the label of Italy favorite (“The chances are 50 and 50”) but not he is afraid to say that “it is not an early final”, and that in the end “it counts who gets to the top step”. It is an inevitably more tense eve than the previous ones: on the team’s flight there was even more intense concentration and a healthy relaxation, because the semifinal is already a remarkable result. However, a defeat would leave a legacy of the pride of an unexpected return to the top four, a basis on which to hope for next year’s World Cup. A victory would be historic, because only twice the Italy of football has reached the bottom of the European Championship and has only won one, in 1968. To push towards the final there is also the wind of blue pride, reinforced by the a feat of Italbasket, qualified for the Games, and by that of the tennis player Matteo Berrettini, the first Italian after 23 years in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon. About fifteen kilometers away, Mancini’s team will seek glory tonight at Wembley, one of the temples of football steeped in the mystique of sport, where the coach experienced the bitterness of defeat 29 years ago against Sampdoria in the Champions Cup final ( even if it was the old Wembley) together with his brotherly friend Gianluca Vialli, now at his side on the bench. «Luca is now a bit old – Mancini smiled -, we always listen to him willingly when he speaks». To extend his unbeaten run that has lasted for 33 games, he must now overcome a national team that in its history has won all four European semifinals played, led by Luis Enrique is not immune to blackout but remains the most prolific of Euro 2020 with 12 goals scored , one more than Italy, and as usual dominates the statistics on ball possession (67.2%) and accuracy in passing (89.4%). «Luis Enrique is good – Mancini’s opinion -, all his teams play well in football, regardless of the victories. They invented a football that led them to extraordinary successes. Our football is slightly different, but we are Italian, we cannot suddenly become Spanish ». “We must be careful. They will put us in difficulty with their dribble », is aware Leonardo Bonucci, who with his teammates intends to honor the promise made to Leonardo Spinazzola, forced to watch the game from the hospital in Finland where he underwent an Achilles tendon surgery. In his place on the wing there will be Emerson Palmieri, Federico Chiesa should be confirmed in the trident and Ciro Immobile continues to enjoy Mancini’s confidence. «I find it very unfair that there are not half Italian and half Spanish fans – concludes Mancini -. For the rest it is better to play in front of the public than with a few people “