Leonardo Bonucci praised former teammate Merih Demiral and highlighted that the Azzurri squad are still reeling from their World Cup play-off disaster.
Italy suffered a horrific 1-0 loss to North Macedonia at the Stadio Renzo Barbera in Palermo last week, ending their hopes of qualifying for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. Roberto Mancini’s side will now face Turkey in a relatively meaningless friendly match tomorrow evening.
Speaking to TRT Sport, Bonucci first discussed his former teammate Merih Demiral, who he’ll likely be facing tomorrow.
“Merih is a great person and a great professional. He needs to play to improve, he did the right thing by going to Atalanta.”
He then reflected on the play-off loss to North Macedonia.
“We haven’t gotten over the shock, we are very sorry, we didn’t expect such a result. In the summer we felt great joy, this result saddens us instead.”
The 34-year-old Bonucci, who is contracted to Juventus until 2024, is one of the players who is likely to be increasingly phased out of the Azzurri squad following the failure to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar. The next major tournament that Italy are likely to attend is Euro 2024, when the Bianconeri defender would be 37 years old.
The Italy squad are now facing a significant overhaul over the coming months as Mancini looks to re-discover the magic in the Azzurri squad ahead of the next major tournament.
Bonucci ritrova Demiral: «Atalanta scelta giusta, ha bisogno di questo» – https://t.co/f8AyTzmRGe pic.twitter.com/TfKyRmBKe4
— JuventusNews24.com (@junews24com) March 28, 2022
bonucci should be ashamed, next season should be demiral play for Juve and he can go to wherever clubs he wants..
Why should he be ashamed? Maybe if he had been playing last week he could have headed in one of the 16 corners
Juve let Demiral AND Romero go – 2 bizarre decisions.
If they were playing 3 at the back now, the Demiral – De Ligt – Romero trio could have been their CBs for 10 years.
Atalanta have done well to sign Demiral, but with no CL football next year, will they sell him?
@FERBAN
I agree letting Romero go is a mistake. But I do hope Juventus bring back Demiral, I believe he is a good player.