Berlin (DPA)
Coach Roberto Mancini made a remarkable shift in the fortunes of the Italian national football team, during the European Championship “Euro 2020”, which was held this summer, after the team won the title after failing to reach the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
After his appointment in the wake of the historic failure to qualify for the Russian World Cup, Mancini led the Italian team to a world record, by not losing in 36 consecutive matches, which saw him crown the European Championship and reach the semi-finals of the European Nations League.
Italy will host the semi-finals of the Nations League, where the Italian team will open the matches of this round against Spain in Milan tomorrow, Wednesday. It is a duplicate of the semi-final match of the European Nations Championship, which the Italian team won on penalties three months ago.
A day later, the French team will meet with its Belgian counterpart, ranked first in the world, in Turin, in search of a ticket for the final match that will be held next Sunday in Milan, after the match for third and fourth place in Turin.
Mancini said to the official website of the European Football Association “UEFA”: “The Spain national team is the team that we fought against a lot during the Euro 2020 competitions. It is a good team and has good players.” “It will be a good match,” he added. They are the best at passing the ball to the ground, we haven’t had time to play at their level.
The Italian national team led by Mancini returned to Italy as champions after winning the Euro, which is very important in a country hard hit by the Corona virus epidemic. He said: It was a great thing, because we made many people happy, old and young. Something that brought happiness to many, perhaps also because of the times we were living in.
Luis Enrique, coach of the Spanish national team, told “UEFA” that the Nations League is a tournament we would like to win, and it is surprising that we will face the European champion in his country. He added: It will be a very interesting match, to see the quality of the performance that we can perform in front of a crowd, the majority of which is Italy, and against the European champions. You don’t need more motivation than this.
All participating teams took a break from the World Cup qualifiers to play the tournament, but the possibility of winning a trophy immediately is more tempting than playing the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Spain and Italy will look at the euro with pride, but the French team, the world champions, and its Belgian counterpart are hoping to compensate for their early exit from the euro.
France defender Raphael Varane told “UEFA”: You enter any tournament in order to win it. In Euro 2020, we didn’t achieve that goal but we have other challenges ahead of us, so we focus on this, and the matches are reset every time, whether it’s a win or a loss.
“We have already won the World Cup in 2018. We want to get those great feelings back, so, of course, we want to win.” On the contrary, the Belgian national team is still looking to win its first international championship despite being at the top of the world rankings.
Belgium coach Roberto Martinez said: “This generation can compete for a title, and while this generation continues to lead the world rankings, which is an achievement for this group when they retire, we really want both.”
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