Italy will face North Macedonia at Renzo Barbera on Thursday and the winner will go on to play either Portugal or Turkey for a place in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
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Italy head coach Roberto Mancini feels there are no favourites in the World Cup play-offs involving North Macedonia, Portugal, Turkey and his team, the Azzurri. Italy will face North Macedonia at Renzo Barbera on Thursday and the winner will go on to play either Portugal or Turkey to secure one of the remaining three spots left for European teams at FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
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A big day in Sicily ⚽#ITAMKD #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro #WCQ pic.twitter.com/SmhTaQeQWB
— Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri_En) March 24, 2022
“We haven’t had much time, the lads had to recover from long journeys and lots of games, so we only really had half a day to try out tactical situations,” said Mancini in the press conference.
“This is why we focused on the same lads who won the Euros, as they know each other and what we need to do.”
Four-time World Champions Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia after losing to Sweden in the playoffs. It was the first time the Azzurri had missed the World Cup since 1958. There are nine players in the current squad who experienced the elimination five years ago.
“This is the life of a sporting figure, there are highs and lows, we all wish that we could only experience victories. All we need to do is be concentrated on ourselves. Italy play good football and we have to focus on nothing more.”
The World Cup in Qatar is sure to be without Italy or Portugal. Italy and Portugal, the current and previous European Champions, were drawn in the same qualifying path, which means either one will fail to qualify for next year’s tournament. When asked about is there a favourite in this path to the World Cup?
“We all start from scratch, every game begins at 0-0 and anything can happen over 90 minutes,” was Mancini’s response.
“I don’t see any favourites, as every match must be played, including those that might seem easy on paper.
“North Macedonia defend well and have good technique, don’t forget they won away to Germany in the qualifiers. We need patience, but it starts from 0-0, it’s not like we need to overturn a result.”
Italy produced a very dominant performance to lift the Euro 2020 title, and then surprisingly went on to finish runner-up to Switzerland in the World Cup qualifying group and now have to go the extra yards to qualify the prestigious tournament. The CT was asked what had changed in this Italy side after winning EURO 2020 and falling so badly off the boil in World Cup qualifiers?
“We have always tried to play our football. The only thing is when you prepare the Euros or World Cup, you have time to work in training intensively. When you play mid-season, we don’t have that luxury.”
