ITALY are aiming for World Cup glory despite navigating a rotten play-off road to win the 2022 tournament, with Northern Macedonia the first barrier in the way.
The European champions start a potential two-match mini-campaign in Palermo on Thursday with a second straight World Cup a real opportunity to miss as a trip to Turkey or Portugal awaits when they reach their semi-finals.
However, coach Roberto Mancini says he is looking past the playoffs and on to Qatar, where the tournament starts in November.
“Our goal is to win the World Cup, and to win the World Cup, we have to win these two matches. There is nothing else to say,” Mancini told reporters on Monday.
After the so-called ‘Magical Nights’ of Euro 2020, Italy certainly looked set to banish the ghosts of the disastrous qualifying campaign for 2018, as Mancini’s team not only won, but also won an expansive style of football. has, which is rarely associated with the Azzurri.
The hilarious summer evenings soon made way for a frosty autumn, in which Italy drew four of their last five World Cup qualifiers and two missed Jorginho penalties in their two matches with Switzerland cost them an automatic place.
The Italian displays in those matches did not live up to the terrible style that characterized their play until the Euro quarter-final victory over Belgium.
“I am confident. I have good players, professionals who have built a victory out of nothing that no one has believed in before,” Mancini added.
“They have managed to form an exceptional team. We have to build our confidence in what we have achieved.”
Defensive worries
Even though the manner in which the top spot in Group C was handed over to the Swiss caused alarm, Mancini adhered to the blueprint that brought him triumph at Wembley.
“We do not have much time to try new things in training. The basics will be the same as in the euro,” he said.
Italy will likely miss their very first choice back four, with Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci, Leonardo Spinazzola and Giovanni Di Lorenzo all expected to come out of the half.
Right-back Di Lorenzo was taken out of the picture at the last minute as he limped off Napoli’s 2-1 win over Udinese on Saturday afternoon, while on the other hand Spinazzola has not played since hitting his Achilles tendon against the ‘Belgium injured in July. .
The last time Bonucci played was in early March, while on Sunday Juve team-mate Chiellini made his first appearance for the best part of two months, in the first half of his team’s 2-0 win over Salernitana.
Mancini said he would probably not risk as important a figure as Chiellini for a home game against a team they expected to dominate, due to the tough nature of the final if they go through.
“Giorgio is pretty good. We’ll see if he can play both games, probably not, but we’ll talk about that together,” Mancini said.
Supporting his team will be a sold-out crowd at the Stadio Renzo Barbera in the Sicilian capital, the first match in Italy to be played in front of a stadium at full capacity since the Coronavirus pandemic for the first time to combat participants.
Stadiums in Italy should not open completely until April after fluctuating between 50 and 75 percent since the start of the season, but a special permit has been granted for the play-offs as Italy hopes not to repeat the nightmare of more than four years ago. – AFP
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