Nicolò Barella reveals Italy’s reaction against North Macedonia impressed him on Friday and claims Ukraine will struggle if the Azzurri will keep the ball possession tomorrow.
A draw against Ukraine on Monday is enough for Italy to qualify for Germany 2024. The Azzurri beat North Macedonia at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Friday. They went 3-0 up, but their opponents scored twice in the second half.
Nevertheless, Italy didn’t sit back and reacted by playing attacking football, leaving Barella impressed.
“From the pitch, I didn’t see difficult situations. We conceded twice. The first time from a corner kick and then, it was too easy to dribble past me,” he told Sky Sport Italia.
“There are situations where we must improve. At an international level, you pay a high price for errors. I always felt we’d win the game, the reaction was great as we tried to score rather than defend, so it was great.”
The Inter midfielder believes Italy must have the same attitude against Ukraine tomorrow.
“They are a strong team, but we are aware of our qualities and want to defend this title, which we deservedly won. To do so, we need to play these difficult games,” he said.
“This is football and we are ready. Surely it’s easier to enter the pitch to win and avoid finding ourselves in a tricky situation. Obviously, we must know we have two results available but it would be better to kill the game off right away and then manage it in the best way for us.”
Barella started against North Macedonia earlier this week and had started alongside his Inter teammate Davide Frattesi in the first leg match against Ukraine in September. Frattesi greatly contributed to Italy’s win against the Ukrainians two months ago by scoring a brace at the Stadio Meazza.
“Davide is a great player, like many others here. He has contributed to adding something more, but I don’t know about the coach’s decision. Everyone will be ready for this match,” said Barella.
“Ukraine have great players. They are fast with great technique. However, we proved in San Siro that they struggle when we keep the ball, so we must aim for this.”
Italy trained at Coverciano on Sunday morning and will then fly to Leverkusen where the game against Ukraine will be played on Monday.
The starting 11 against Malta was very good , but on the bench when fit , locateli,udogie, ogbonna, de Lorenzo ,GRIFO, SENSI , CASTROVELI, PELLEGRINI, FRATESSI,KEAN AND BELLOTI , MADRAGORA.
I like the new positive attacking style and we will beat Ukraine and not settle for the draw