Alessandro Bastoni describes his first Italy cap as ‘a dream come true’ and a sign of his progress as a player, but won’t rule out a new partnership with Leonardo Bonucci.
The centre-back is a regular starter for Inter, yet this was his first senior Italy appearance in a 4-0 friendly win over Estonia.
Alessandro Bastoni describes his first Italy cap as ‘a dream come true’ and a sign of his progress as a player, but won’t rule out a new partnership with Leonardo Bonucci.
The centre-back is a regular starter for Inter, yet this was his first senior Italy appearance in a 4-0 friendly win over Estonia.
“It’s a dream come true, because all kids who start playing football start out wanting to wear the Italy shirt. It happened today and I couldn’t be happier,” the 21-year-old told RAI Sport.
Bonucci was shouting advice constantly from the touchline this evening and Bastoni admits he heard all of it. Could he form a new Italy centre-back partnership with Bonucci or are they too similar?
“I’ve always said it’s a great pleasure to be here with Leo, as he’s a player I really admire, and I try to learn everything I can.
“We already play in a not entirely dissimilar way to Inter, where it’s two of us who can pass it out from the back, but our primary role is to defend and we focus on that too.”
In a certain sense, it’s surprising that this was Bastoni’s senior Italy debut, as he has been a regular at Inter for quite some time.
“I feel that I’ve grown physically and mentally, I won’t forget that last season I didn’t play in the Champions League, this term I’ve played three out of three, so that shows the progress I’ve made.
“At international level, you can take nothing for granted, so we are pleased to have kept our focus and the clean sheet.”
Bastoni has already experienced and fully recovered from COVID-19, so he was able to play this evening when several Inter teammates were not.
“Fortunately, I got through COVID-19 pretty quickly and have the antibodies, so I was given the all-clear early and didn’t require as many tests as for example Nicolò Barella.”