How Mancini’s pursuit of happiness rebuilt Italy from the ruins of 2018 | Italy

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resistanceOberto Mancini has achieved the goals he set at the beginning of the season Euro 2020. In an open letter on the eve of the game, the Italian coach promised that his team will take this opportunity to bring the children’s enthusiasm on the playground, and provide their country with a “moment of joy. Just in a moment, let us forget About the year we just experienced”.

So much has been delivered by the end of the year Opener against TurkeyItaly won 3-0, but more importantly, they attacked with a relentless commitment and pushed forward to the end. Ciro Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne celebrate the goal Swear tribute Worship football The movie “Coach in the Ball”.

A country fell in love with its football team again. This in itself is a huge achievement. Many fans completely abandoned the Azzurri after failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

After that disaster, Mancini took over the team.TV ratings for the first game he was in charge of Down Compared to his predecessor, Giampiero Ventura (Giampiero Ventura), an increase of more than 11% over the same period, and an increase of more than 22% compared to Antonio Conte’s time. He accepted this moment as an opportunity for risk, telling his players “you can learn by making mistakes.”

However, there is time to learn, and time to show the knowledge you know to the world. Before the last 16 games against Austria, Mancini made a different voice. “Tomorrow is the first game where we can’t make mistakes,” he said. “You must win. You can’t do anything else.”

Although Mancini is eager to spread happiness, he has always known that the greatest joy in sports is winning. He didn’t say in the letter to the fans, but his eyes were always on the prize. Italy Unbeaten in 33 games, this is their longest consecutive game, but when they tied the record of 30 games set nearly a century ago under the leadership of head coach Vittorio Pozzo Mancini shrugged to welcome this achievement.

“It’s nice to be on par with the legend,” he said. “But Pozo won the trophy, which is more important.”

The more progress Italy made in this game, the more frankly he shared his ambitions. When asked before the semifinals of Italy against Spain which aspects of the game fascinated him the most, Mancini replied: “What interests me is the idea of ​​reaching the final.” On Friday, he stepped forward. One step, tell UEFA’s website: “It’s a great achievement to reach the finals. But it’s not enough.”

Roberto Mancini celebrated after defeating Spain in a penalty shoot-out in the semifinals. Photo: Carl Recine/EPA

It is easy to see that Italy’s undefeated can even become a burden at such a moment. Mancini’s transformation was extraordinary, and after experiencing its lowest point in 60 years, the Azzurri regrouped and almost immediately put them on a better path. In these 33 games, they won 27 games. The Italian team leads their opponents by a score of 86-10.

However, Mancini’s own words show that if these numbers are not accompanied by a trophy, he will feel hollow. When his UEFA interviewer asked him if he expected to succeed so quickly, he replied: “We have not succeeded yet. It will succeed only if we win on Sunday. We hope to do some great work. , We have achieved a lot. But in the final analysis, the important thing is to win.”

This will be the fourth time the Italian team has played European Championship Finals, but they only won in 1968 as the host of the event. Although they have won two World Cups since then, they have failed to succeed on the mainland.

Have a Heartbreaking defeat in the 2000 European CupItaly led France until the 4th minute of stoppage time in the second half, then Sylvain Wiltord equalized the score and David Trezeguet scored the golden goal. In 2012, they Spain 4-0 victory.

The latter situation seems unlikely to happen again. In 2012, the team went through great efforts Victory over Germany in the semifinalsGiorgio Chiellini injured his calf and forced him to play 21 minutes later. When Italy played in the last half hour, 10 men ran out of substitutes to replace their players.

They lost a key player Leonardo Spinazzola in this match Torn Achilles tendon Tendon in Beat Belgium in the quarterfinalsThe left-back was missed very much in the game against Spain because of his overlapping runs with Lorenzo Insigne in the offense and the recovery speed that helped cover up the lack of rhythm in other areas of the defense.

Italy wants Spinazzola’s substitute Emerson Palmieri to look more comfortable in his game, and they can dominate the game in a way that they can’t play against Spain.The biggest advantage of this Italian team is the midfield trio of Jorginho, Marco Villati and Nicolo Barrera-the first two as double register Direct the drama, while Barrera seeks opportunities to break the boundaries.

Leonardo Spinazzola was one of Italy's outstanding players before he ruptured his Achilles tendon in the quarterfinals against Belgium.
Leonardo Spinazzola was one of Italy’s outstanding players before he ruptured his Achilles tendon in the quarterfinals against Belgium. Photo: Andreas Gebert/Associated Press

In the semifinals, they were surpassed, and Luis Enrique decided to let Danny Olmo fake nine goals, allowing Spain to squeeze the midfield from all directions. However, in the rest of the game, Italy occupied possession of the ball. They plan to do it again at Wembley.

This stadium means more to Mancini. For him, this will always be where he lost the European Cup final against Barcelona in 1992 for Sampdoria.Back there have already won two games in this game With his former teammate Luca Vialli Attilio Lombardo, part of his Italian staff, feels like a catharsis.

Nevertheless, they have not won the final at Wembley. Mancini knows that the atmosphere on Sunday will be different from the atmosphere that greeted them during the two previous visits, when Italian fans were the majority.

“England will have almost the entire stadium behind them,” he said on Friday. “Obviously, they will get a lot of support. But considering that we have no fans for a year and a half outside of the last few games of the European Cup, that’s also great. I think it’s wonderful to have a lot of fans in the stadium. thing.”

He will tell his players to treat the game like other players: with all the happiness he promised in that letter before the game. “You can’t play football nervously,” Mancini said. “You have to play under the right pressure and really want to go out and have fun. This is the only way you can win the finals.”

Winning is the only important thing.

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