Federico Bernardeschi feels Roberto Mancini has already ‘achieved something extraordinary’ with the Italy side, but they need to add the Euro 2020 trophy to make history.
The Azzurri are unbeaten in 30 games and won all three of their Euro 2020 Group A matches, setting up a Round of 16 against Austria on Saturday at Wembley Stadium.
“When Mancini arrived on the bench of the Nazionale, it really was not a good moment. Italy as a team were dead and under attack,” Bernardeschi told the official UEFA website.
The CT took over after Giampiero Ventura failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, going out in the play-offs against Sweden in November 2017.
“He came in and slowly, game by game, keeping things simple, he brought back confidence to the players and enthusiasm to the fans. He achieved something extraordinary: brought the Italian people back to their national time. Extraordinary.”
It was difficult to experience the extent of the enthusiasm, as the pandemic forced stadiums to be emptied out, but fans are returning to the arenas during Euro 2020.
“After so many months without fans, it wasn’t easy to handle that impact, but the enthusiasm was marvellous,” continued Bernardeschi.
“This is a healthy, genuine, united group of lads with everyone focusing on the same objective. There’s a lot of competition for places, because there’s so much talent, but that takes nothing away from the final objective of the team.”
The 30-game unbeaten run has equalled the all-time record, set by Vittorio Pozzo in the 1930s, while they have also kept a clean sheet for over 1,000 minutes of football.
“We are truly happy, but as we’ve already said, we need to add a trophy to it in order to make this truly extraordinary. I think we can do very well in the Euros,” added the Juventus man.
“Austria are a strong side with some real champions like David Alaba. We need our best performance so far, as if it was a Final. Plus we’ll be playing at Wembley, the history of football took place here, so that will make everything even more exciting.”