CT Antonio Conte looks to quell hype around Italy – “feet on the ground, we’ve done nothing”.
Going into Euro 2016, many decried the Azzurri squad as the worst ever to travel to a major tournament.
However, after beating heavily-fancied Belgium, some are now talking about a run to the final.
“I have a group of determined lads, who want to do things right,” Conte said in his Press conference ahead of the Sweden game.
CT Antonio Conte looks to quell hype around Italy – “feet on the ground, we’ve done nothing”.
Going into Euro 2016, many decried the Azzurri squad as the worst ever to travel to a major tournament.
However, after beating heavily-fancied Belgium, some are now talking about a run to the final.
“I have a group of determined lads, who want to do things right,” Conte said in his Press conference ahead of the Sweden game.
“A single game doesn’t change the attitude of these lads. We had a good performance against Belgium, but we’ve done nothing.
“Our feet are on the ground, we’ve done nothing.
“We know that every game is difficult, just look at the example of France. Albania held them until the 90th minute, they only got the second in the 95th.
“The evidence is that there’s great balance and preparation, we have to do great things.
“A lack of quality? I wouldn’t say that, everyone says that but if it was true there’d be no point in me getting up in the morning.
“It’s certainly not a very good period for Italian football. Having said that, we still have to do our best.
“I don’t know if this would be considered an old team, but I think this is the best 23. We have a month where we have to give our all and optimise everything.”
It has been suggested that Conte could make changes to his side, with Alessandro Florenzi tipped to come into the midfield.
“We’ve only played one game, we had four days to recover and train. I’ll leave the assessments until tomorrow morning.
“I’ll make my choices based on two things: watching the players, and talking to them. I repeat, we’ve only played one game; so it seems over the top to talk about tired people.
“I’m not thinking of making major changes.”
Inevitably, the CT was asked about Sweden’s star man, the striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“He’s so strong that he could play in any League in the world,” Conte acknowledged.
“Meanwhile, there’s a team like Sweden, very solid with one star.
“You have to take on the team as a whole, both in attack and defence. There’s the Ibrahimovic problem, but there could also be problems with [Marcus] Berg, [John] Guidetti or set pieces.
“When we analyse a team, we do it as a whole and then try to take their weaknesses.”