Gianluigi Buffon believes Italy’s first game with Spain “doesn’t much affect” Saturday as “there’s been a year of rebuilding”.
The Azzurri took a 1-1 draw in Turin last year, though La Roja dominated the first 70 minutes of the match and Buffon himself made a mistake for their goal.
“The first game doesn’t much affect this,” the captain said in the pre-match Press conference.
Gianluigi Buffon believes Italy’s first game with Spain “doesn’t much affect” Saturday as “there’s been a year of rebuilding”.
The Azzurri took a 1-1 draw in Turin last year, though La Roja dominated the first 70 minutes of the match and Buffon himself made a mistake for their goal.
“The first game doesn’t much affect this,” the captain said in the pre-match Press conference.
“There’s been a year of rebuilding, of change. In this year of games together, something has been different in the last few months.
“Tomorrow we want to find out if that something can lead to important results, or whether we need to perfect things and improve.
“Beyond qualification, I hope it’s a great game. Stepping out in this stadium and putting on a good performance would inject belief.
“Will we play openly? As with all teams which know how to do their jobs well, the key thing is the balance and compactness in both phases, both offensive and defensive.
“We’ve worked hard this week to try and bear fruit from our tactical diktats.
“In the past few years we haven’t won many against them, but we haven’t lost by a lot aside from the European Championship final.
“The others were close, going to extra-time or penalties. Maybe we’re not as good.
“In the last Euros we were better, but maybe their team was going through a moment of implosion, general mistrust.
“I trust that we’ll play a good game, but to go from that to saying we’ll win… I don’t know.”
David Villa has been recalled to the Spain squad, and could win his first cap since the 2014 World Cup.
“It’s not like he retired from football,” Buffon said of the New York City FC striker.
“He’s still playing, albeit in a league which is far away from here. At this point in time, where most people might not be in the best physical condition, maybe the CT thought about taking a player who is in the middle of his season.
“He’s definitely hurt us in the past, but a lot has changed.”
Giorgio Chiellini was forced to pull out with an injury, but the Juventus captain assures it’s not a serious injury.
“I think he had a bit of a niggle, it’s not something to be worried about but it affected his presence for the qualifiers.”