The national team coach: “I said players born in Italy should play, but that problem didn’t exist and the world has changed. Now we’re in worse shape than Southgate”
The new European adventure of Roberto Mancini’s Italy begins on Thursday at 20.45 in Naples. As reigning champion. And it starts right from the opponent of the triumph of two years ago at Wembley, the England finalist of the last edition. However, the blue coach knows that it’s a whole different story, after the sensational failure to qualify for the last World Cup: “It will be a tough match like all the others. They have more choice than us for many reasons, but in Naples we want play a good game, play their best and start these qualifiers well, but they are strong.” Attention then passes to Retegui: “We’ve been following him for some time, he has quality and he’s a young boy. We didn’t think he would say yes, we hesitated a bit. The hope is that he can be important, he’s a bright and young boy”. And probably, that of natives, will be an increasingly popular solution in the future: “Years ago I said that players born in Italy should play for the national team, but this problem didn’t exist here yet and the world has changed. We are worse off than Soutghate, if there’s the possibility of getting new players, we’ll take them. There are few Italians who score”
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March 20 – 14:01
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