Since the new beginning in 2018, Jorginho has been steering Italy’s game very successfully.
Photo: imago images / Nicolo Campo
The Olympic Stadium in Rome is ready. Fever meters are installed at each of the 48 entrances. Only those who have a negative test result, who have recovered from Covid-19 in the last six months according to a medical certificate or who have at least the first dose of vaccine in their body are allowed to enter the stadium. Isolation rooms were set up for suspected cases of infection among the up to 16,000 spectators and around 3,000 employees in the stadium.
With all caution, the anticipation for the EM is increasing in Italy. Memories of 1990 are awakened. There, too, Italy played its first match of the then World Cup tournament in Rome. Roberto Mancini, today’s head coach, experienced the 1-0 winner against Austria by Salvatore Schillaci as a player from the bench. Italy was third at the time, and Schillaci was the tournament’s top scorer.
Mancini does not currently have a goalscorer like the lively Sicilian in his squad. The former Dortmund Ciro Immobile and the Turin Andrea Belotti are solid center strikers, but they don’t invite you to dream. The very agile Giacomo Raspadori from the talent factory in Sassuolo could cause a surprise.
Despite the lack of a center forward of weight, the goals before the tournament are even higher than the final result at the last home World Cup. “We want to go to the final. And we can achieve that, ”said Mancini. At least he has already achieved an intermediate goal: After the disastrous missed World Cup 2018, confidence in the Squadra Azzurra has been restored. “The team wants to give pleasure and win,” the “Corriere della Sera” characterized the new era under Mancini. It is characterized by a departure from traditions. Italy used to want to win too – and did so often. How the result came about mattered little. The rear was closed, and the front was supposed to provide individual class for the goals.
Now the situation has changed. There are no goal guarantees like Schillaci, Paolo Rossi, Christian Vieri or Luca Toni. Some of the old defensive guards have retired like goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. The ravages of time are gnawing at others: Giorgio Chiellini (almost 37) and Leonardo Bonucci (34) were never fast. Now they must seek their salvation even more strongly than before in the faculty of anticipation.
In return, the Squadra Azzurra attack has turned into a collective peat factory. The 37 goals in ten qualifying games were scored by 19 players. Eleven of them are also now on the squad. Because the combination turbo was running at full speed and often kept the ball in its own ranks, only four goals were allowed. “Our strength is our collective unity,” says Manuel Locatelli. The Sassuolo midfielder is set to replace the ailing playmaker Marco Verratti in the opening match on Friday. Even without the Parisian professional, the headquarters are well staffed. Jorginho, who has just won the Champions League with Chelsea, is responsible for clever long balls. Nicolò Barella ensures precise passing play and the early interruption of opposing attacks. The 24-year-old Sardinian recently led Inter Milan to the Serie A title.
Now he should do something similar with the national selection. It would be time. “The last European title for us was in 1968. It would be nice if the sequel came now,” said Luigi “Gigi” Riva, who attacked the title holder at the time. Barella also learned the ball game in his football school in Cagliari. “He’s a great footballer – and can be my successor. First Riva 1968, now Barella – that would be fantastic, «Riva imagined the inscription on the plaque.
There are seven matches before this success. The first one will be a challenge. “That could also be the final,” speculated Fatih Terim, ex-national coach of Turkey and through his coaching stations in Milan and Florence also very familiar with Italian football. “Italy has grown a lot thanks to Roberto Mancini and Turkey may be the surprise of this tournament,” said Terim.
The troupe is based on a trio: Burak Yılmaz, Yusuf Yazıcı and Zeki Çelik from the French champions OSC Lille. Then there is AC Milan playmaker Hakan Çalhanoğlu. Yılmaz is an old-fashioned center forward, Yazıcı and Çalhanoğlu dictate in midfield, Çelik reinforces the defensive. “Due to the many players abroad, the quality has increased,” says Terim, who brought Turkey to the European Championship for the first time exactly 25 years ago. Since then, a third place in the World Cup in 2002 and the EM semifinals in 2008 have been achieved. A win and a draw against world champions France in the qualification vouch for the quality of the current squad.
So the Italians should be warned. And nothing goes faster here than the transition from euphoria to depression when expectations are dampened.
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