FROM THE ENVIRONMENT TO MONACO. Più signs that goals. Italy passes with two class strokes that define it: beautiful. Inside those shots that seem designed there is talent, there is the conviction and a new confidence that has grown inside Barella, which has been reborn in Insigne’s head: both so at ease as to try what usually fails, from guess what media is wrong.
Barella and the tight dribbling that discards the world and Insigne in his famous shot around, or rather, tiraggiro, after a solo action, those that often end with a ball forI know and insults to rain. Except that everything works and it is certainly not a coincidence, it is that state of grace that falls on the teams without anxiety, on the national teams that like each other so much that they dare.
Insigne has that shot ready from the darkest night of Italian football, from the absurd defeat against Sweden that excluded us from the last World Cup. He on the bench, not considered, not worthy of reliability, not considered a card to play. Frustrated and offended, yet at the very moment when De Rossi, in disbelief, shouts “Put him” (plus various other things), Insigne finds the nail to which his future will cling and binds us the thread that has brought him here. From then on it became essential and in Mancini’s Italy he does not need defense lawyers, someone who says look at him, choose him, take him because he is already inside, a permanent owner who denies the many times in which he has been discarded. From Ventura backwards: when he was a kid and too short pFor any audition, gifted but without the right physique. Rejected by Inter, rejected by Turin, welcomed by Napoli like a godson, blossomed at Zeman’s Foggia, returned home without ever being able to convince those who were out. A very long journey that however leads to Eurogol. And Insegne signs it with his obsession: «I had the ball, I saw the goal, it went well. I have tried it, as I do all the time ». More or less like this.
The Barella road is much straighter. Wonder boy in Cagliari, key man of the Inter championship, center of the game, point of reference and then father of three daughters at 24, settled, posed, he has also stopped being warned all the time, he is the best Italian midfielder and not exactly only of the season. It was a long time since we saw someone capable of being incisive in every position, of finding space, of giving assists after hiding the ball from the opponents. Lukaku knows that he kisses him at the beginning and almost wants to take him away. And in fact, Barella confirms himself, in all his glory, in a quarter-final against Belgium, famous for their creativity and inventions. So good that Mancini, not really someone who has little use for the show, sticks to the bench, overwhelmed by surprise. He does it so well that Verratti, certainly not someone who is amazed by the style, overwhelms him, carried away by admiration. He does it and sticks out his tongue like Del Piero and leaves his mark. Him, Insigne and 11 goals scored, never so many in this competition and only one since 2006, the year in which the World Cup was won. What ifnot even be so beautiful.