“I spoke to President Gravina in recent days, we are aligned on everything. We will talk about it again calmly, we will see what to improve”. This was said by Roberto Mancini, the Italian coach, speaking of his future and hinting at his intention to remain at the helm of the national team. “We have to start again, thinking about different situations because then we also have important matches”, added the coach.
Mancini in the first press conference after the defeat against Macedonia and the exclusion from the World Cup retraced the matches that led to the defeat: “It is useless to find explanations … Our group had to win it with at least two points ahead of Switzerland . In Basel the match had to end 3-0, in Bulgaria it had to end in goal. The team has always played: it may have been more inaccurate but this is football, things have gone wrong for us. You all remember the match in Basel: we had to win 2-0 by being tight … But that’s it, it’s useless to think or look for excuses. What happened has happened, we must accept it ”.