Francesco Acerbi believes England showed more respect and belief in Italy than the Azzurri had for themselves. ‘We could’ve hurt them, but in the second half we clocked out mentally.’
The Nazionale had taken the lead at Wembley Stadium through Gianluca Scamacca and threatened to add more, but went into the break on level terms due to a Harry Kane penalty.
Marcus Rashford scored on the counter-attack and, after Kalvin Phillips avoided a clear second yellow card, Kane completed the 3-1 rout with a solo run.
“The first half was good, but looking back with hindsight, if we passed it around, we could fairly easily get into their penalty area. Perhaps we should’ve believed in ourselves a bit more and could’ve won this game,” Inter defender Acerbi told Sky Sport Italia.
“England have very talented young players, but that doesn’t mean everything in football. We could’ve hurt them. In the second half, we sort of clocked out mentally. You could see in the first half they were defending deep and were afraid of us.
“Seeing them play with that kind of humility, we ought to view ourselves the same way. Our attitude in the first half was good, but we can never lower our guard against players of this level.”
Luciano Spalletti is trying to bring new ideas to the side after replacing Roberto Mancini, combining some veterans like Acerbi with young defenders such as Giorgio Scalvini and Destiny Udogie.
“The coach trained big clubs before, he has been working at the highest level for many years. He is reassuring us that we are strong, that we must believe in ourselves with the intensity that he wants to see,” added Acerbi.
“However, he also said there isn’t much time, I need people who are ready. We need to be much more ready mentally than we were today. Losing to England is no shame, but looking at the passes we made and didn’t make, the spaces that opened up, we could’ve done more.”
Italy are in any case guaranteed a play-off spot, not that it has gone well for them in recent years with two World Cup exits, but can qualify automatically with a win over North Macedonia and at least a draw against Ukraine.
“I think after the two World Cups… We absolutely must qualify. I don’t even want to think about the possibility of that not happening. We must beat North Macedonia, there’s no two ways about it.”
italy are not physical and dont have the height engand are are agressive better strikers portugal and other teams are ahead or us i was wrighr again i said the were going to loose
engand are are agressive better strikers portugal and other teams are ahead or us i was wrighr again i said the were going to loose
they beat us in italy and and in england people dont fear us anymore they want us in ther group we aew easy to beat