A little over two years have passed since that night ofJuly 11, 2021when the Italy national football team led by Robert Manciniwho has now officially resigned from his role as technical commissioner, was graduating champion of Europe for the fourth time in its history, beating in the final, a Wembleyl’England. Mancini’s dream was actually to bring Italy back to victory Worldinheriting a group that, with the leadership of Gian Piero Venturahad slipped abruptly right on Russia’s qualification for the World Cup 2018. But then, when even under his management Italy missed the goal of playing in the final phase of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, he spoke to the microphones like this: “It’s too big a disappointment to talk about my future”. A clear example of what it was grave that event Without precedents: our national football team, for two consecutive editions, would not have participated in the world championships.
In May 2018, after Ventura’s farewell, the FIGC chose to restart from Mancini. The man suitable for that situation situation thanks to his charisma and to his experienceboth on and off the field. The May 28, 2018 debuts on the Italian bench with one victory, beating Saudi Arabia in a friendly (2-1). Then, two clashes suffered in a friendly, against France and Holland. Matches that anticipate the first important official competition played by Mancini’s Italy, as well as the first edition of the Nations League in which the Azzurri finish second in their group, avoiding relegation to League B but remaining excluded from the final phase of the tournament. For qualifying forEuropean 2020Mancini’s Italy scores new ones victories consecutive, which allows Mancini to equal the record of consecutive victories recorded in 1938 by Vittorio Pozzorecord then broken with the following successes over Bosnia and Herzegovina (0-3) and Armenia (9-1): in the latter match Mancini’s team matured the result with the widest goal gap ever in a qualifying match at the Azzurri’s European Championships and establishes a new (absolute) unbeaten record at the European Championship qualifiers, with 40 consecutive useful hits.
It comes then Euro 2020 (played in 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic), which represents the Highest point of Mancini’s management. In fact, the Azzurri overcome the initial group stage a full score and keeping the untouched door, a feat never previously achieved in a European championship by any national team. On 26 June 2021, with the success on theAustriaa in the round of 16 (2-1 aet), Mancini breaks the record for the highest number of consecutive useful results for the national team, previously set at 30, obtained by the management of Vittorio Pozzo between 1935 and 1939, as well as that of the highest number of consecutive victories and that of consecutive minutes without conceding a goal (1,168, against the 1,143 recorded by Italy in 1972-1974). With the quarter-final victory against the Belgium (1-2) Mancini then reaches the record record of consecutive victories in the European championship (15 including qualifying matches), the record of consecutive victories of the Italian national team in all competitions (13, of which the first 11 without conceding goals) and the world record of coach with streak longest unbeaten run (32), beating the previous record of Alfio Basile e Javier Clemente. The first two of these records are broken on 6 July 2021 with the draw in the semifinal against Spain (1-1 aet, then won on penalties 4-2), but the match is still worth accessing the historic finale of the tournament, where the national team conquers the English in their home and takes home the fourth European of its history. Mancini’s team also concluded that event with the best attack (13 goals scored, equal to Spain) and the best goal difference (+9, equal to England).
From the choral, intense and creative play of the European we then move on to the former failuresthose who take over in the Nations League, which will be followed by the failure to qualify ai world championships in Qatar. The biggest disappointment comes with the is at home in the World Cup play-off against Macedonia (0-1), conceding a goal in the minutes Of recovery which leaves everyone dumbfounded. From that moment on, something changed. Even if with some radical changes of approach, Mancini has tried to bring more freshness and lucidity in recent months. But the national team has never returned to shine as before. On 4 August, with the reorganization of the FIGC technicians and collaborators, he too was appointed as coordinator of the Under-20 and Under-21 national teams. But despite that, he resigns his own resignation from the role of coach: the match towards the great dream of winning the world cup ends like this.