Juventus and Italy winger Federico Bernardeschi admits “it still hurts” not to be at the World Cup, as the tournament gets underway.
The Azzurri were beaten by Sweden in the play-offs having finished behind Spain in the group, so the four-time winners be watching from home.
“It still hurts,” Bernardeschi wrote on Instagram.
“Now that it’s starting, it all comes back to mind all these months on. The disappointment, anger and frustration at not being there and not taking the whole nation to the World Cup is enormous.
Juventus and Italy winger Federico Bernardeschi admits “it still hurts” not to be at the World Cup, as the tournament gets underway.
The Azzurri were beaten by Sweden in the play-offs having finished behind Spain in the group, so the four-time winners be watching from home.
“It still hurts,” Bernardeschi wrote on Instagram.
“Now that it’s starting, it all comes back to mind all these months on. The disappointment, anger and frustration at not being there and not taking the whole nation to the World Cup is enormous.
“Many will think that we don’t care, that we’ve already forgotten everything, that we didn’t commit ourselves enough.
“Unfortunately it’s not like that. We know we should have done a lot more, that’s for sure. But we Italians are not made to cry for ourselves. We have to react, and we know how to react!
“We’ve embarked on a new path, with a great desire to do it and we’ll have one more reason to give our best: to wipe this disappointment from the minds of all the Italian people!
“Good luck to those playing in it, may the best team win. We’ll be back, make no mistake about it!”