Former Roma captain Daniele De Rossi said Italy must ‘rewind, rather than reset’ and ‘remember that four months ago we were the strongest team in Europe’.
The former midfielder was part of Italy CT Roberto Mancini’s staff under EURO 2020, when the Azzurri went all the way.
De Rossi believes Mancini’s men have what it takes to arrive at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar next year.
“After reaching such a milestone, a moment of disarray can be physiological,” De Rossi told La Gazzetta dello Sport at the Gran Gala Gazzetta Awards.
“We are close to qualifying and we are in the running together with other national teams who will play in the play-offs.
“There’s no problem, we will play it. Reset? We must remember that four months ago we were the strongest team in Europe.
“Rather than reset, it’s better to rewind and look for positive memories.”
Italy prepare to play North Macedonia in March next year, before a possible Final against the winner between Portugal and Turkey.
I absolutely know that Italy will lose. It’s a disgrace. They take us on such a high then punch us in the balls. They should be ashamed and this will tarnish their achievement for ever! Disgusted!
I blame Mancini for not picking on form players
@ Luca- Lose which match exactly? The one they are going to play next year ? I bet you already know your future
Well they ain’t beating Portugal in Lisbon that’s for sure .
Lol imagine you had this mentality pre-euros – you obviously all believe you have accessed your god like powers to predict. Here’s another view, Italy will win both matches and exceed expectations at the World Cup in Qatar, Ying and Yang – I can see the future and I predicted Italy would win the Euros against England in the final, so work on your premonitions guys because you are oh so wrong 🙂
Weather they make it to the world cup or not winning the Euros was a huge achievement that can’t be tarnished. Either way the world cup is losing a top 10 team. It just shows how wrong the qualifying is.
Don’t be too discouraged
Portugal isn’t that good either
Ronaldo has finished his greatness
mmm yea it’s a doesn’t look good situation come March. we had the most perfect set up to rightfully book our spot in WC2022 with the final 4 games of qualifying just months ago, but choked hard. now we have literally 2 single elimination games to not fail again…With an enormous amount of pressure. i personally like the 2 legged home and away playoff game which it should be, i dont know why fifa must tweak world football for the worst.
im confident v Macedonia (78%) but against Portugal (49%) im not so sure…and wouldn’t be that surprised if we fail a 2nd consecutive time.
the serenity would be through the roof for Mancini if we already qualified like we should have.
We Italians should have a bit of belief . Yes in all honestly we should of , could of already qualified but we didn’t , so let’s say if they (national team) want it, and we select the right team we have a very good chance of qualifying for this World Cup . We weren’t afraid to play our style at the Euros , and we won, even as an outsider . We can do the same but aa the favourite this time . Regardless we have a good chance ! Grazie
Who me : with all do respect , why should we fear Portugual? They have just as much or more pressure on them especially playing at home ( remember Italy vs Sweden 2nd leg playoff we were home and couldn’t score ) . Also Portugual has to Turkey . Regardless we must play away which could help us . Forza Italia !
Italy will be back
Can you imagine – missing the WC twice in a row?! Disgusting. And sure it tarnishes the Euro win. You don’t win the Euro and then fail to qualify for the WC immediately afterwards in circumstances that were totally under your control.
It will definitely tarnish it, sadly. It shouldn’t but it will.
It was an illusion we were in good shape because we had many of our qualfiiers early (because of the Nations League).
But Switzerland were keeping pace. Where we dropped Points to Bulgaria, they dropped to Northern Ireland.
But then when we were playing in the UNL they made up those matches in hand.
I had commented on here at the time that it was far from done and my comment was dismissed.
I wish I was wrong. Matches Played needed to be taken into account a lot more.
This is on Jorgi, sorry.
The match versus Switzerland in Rome was a fair result, missed PK aside. It’s the match in Basel that hurt us.
Not that Mancio needs me or any of us to feel sorry for him but he had bad luck at the World Cup in 1990. We should have won that one. It would be nice to see him back at a World Cup as a Manager. Fernando Santos had no notable career as a player but if I’m not mistaken he’s been to 2 World Cups as a Manager already? Nobody said life was fair but you have to wonder.
Don’t discount Turkey to upset Portugal.
This is what i think will happen:
– Italy will advance past Portugal;
– Mourinho will replace current Portuguese coach after failing to qualify for Champions League with Roma;
– De Rossi will become next Roma coach and Totti Director of Sport;
Save my comment and read with joy in April!
Mike F……saved, soooooooo hope you’re right
Yep. Couldn’t agree more. Jorginho failures have been devastating to our cause. Unforgivable really. I don’t know how he show his face in public!!
It’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating- it’s really hard to beat us, but we do have a lot of draws. We’ve lost once in 41 matches spanning over 3 years.
We really haven’t played that bad. We’ve just been super, super unlucky. All that luck we had in the Euros went in the other direction in World Cup qualifying. I mean, Spain and Holland qualified in the 2nd half of each of their final games.
Barring a disaster, and if we play our game, we should beat North Macedonia straight up. I just worry if we could go to penalties with Portugal that I wouldn’t want getting a ticket to Qatar to be a coin-flip. So, we need to dominate the midfield, which we can if we have all our players healthy.
Let’s go lads, positive energy. It’s in a few months which is a good thing in my mind, we can get our heads right. We can do this !!!
If it goes to PK’s, then maybe advantage us with Gigio.
I’d like to think so but we’ve obviously been shaky with penalties in qualifiers. You just never know with PK’s.
They’re saying Spinazzola to be back in early February now for Roma. If he gets 5-6 weeks of game time I think he will be good to go for Azzurri in March. It’s never been the same without him- we need him !!
Is Rui Patricio good with them? Romanisti?
I wrote recently if it goes to PK’s or even if 1 is awarded to Portugal during the match, Gigio needs to know by the Juve contingent what Ronaldo does. Even ask Carlo Pinsoglio who seemed to be Ronaldo’s BFF at Juve.
From what I gather, like most Right Footer’s he will shoot low to the GK’s right. OR when he wants to put an exclamation mark on a PK he goes high to the GK’s left.
So far Ronaldo is 0/1 against Gigio on PK’s. Long may it continue.
FORZA AZZURRI
Mike F,
“Mourinho will replace current Portuguese coach after failing to qualify for Champions League with Roma”
Respectfully, unless I’ve misunderstood: you mean Mourinho will finish the season with Roma and if they don’t finish top 4, he goes to manage Portugal?
If that’s what you mean, it doesn’t really concern Italy as our Playoff is in March and domestic season ends in May.
But if your comment is just for a Roma POV, OK. I could see it.
Fernando Santos has already said he is gone if they don’t qualify. God forbid If Portugal qualify, Santos will see it out until December.
I would like to see Mancio get qualification to the World Cup in the city where he managed Galatasaray (but different stadium). Would put a nice bow on things.
As I understand it, Greece have already made it known that they want Santos back. Let’s make it happen.
Sonny Daze,
Minor correction, if I may. Spain only needed a Draw in the final match versus Sweden. Indeed they got a 2nd Half goal but they were OK with a Draw.
Off topic but Sweden really made a mess of things by losing to Georgia in the second last match.
Serbia were facing a playoff until the 89th Minute goal. Then ecstacy. I watched the match. No fluke, Serbia were superior to Portugal that match. I would even argue that Portugal’s goal should have been disallowed.
Some Portugal fans are starting to consider the Estadio da Luz as bad luck and don’t want Portugal to play there for these Playoffs.
Also, I’m pretty sure Algeria have just tied our 37-game unbeaten run in the Arab Cup. If they win the final, our record is gone.
It’s Amazing how we’ve gotten so little time to enjoy the Euro victory and this unbeaten record. I mean, within a few months we are going to play-off to fight for our right to play in World Cup and this amazing record is probably gone too. I celebrated the 2006 world cup for like 4 years. For the Euros I’ve had only 4 months to celebrate. It’s pretty crazy.
The Way I see it, keeping it to simple Logic, Italy will beat a not-so-great Portugal to reach the World-Cup. Portugal could only barely manage to beat a weak Italy by 1-0 in 2018 in UNL. In the Second Leg, Mancini & Italy wised up and Portugal could only draw 0-0. If Italy play at their best Potential, Portugal will go Home early. Portugal are not as dynamic as Spain. Simple. Italy will enter the World-Cup with a Big Boost.
@SonnyDaze they already did so, 38 matches unbeaten since yesterday!
The first and second NL matches were mirror opposites. I remember them well.
First match Portugal dominated possession and one thing I took out from that match was how ‘green’ Chiesa was and how Pepe bullied him.
2nd match it was the opposite.
Mancio’s style on the team started on take shape on the team and by the time the 2nd match came around, Possession was all ours.
If memory serves, in between all that we won 0-1 at the Amsterdam Arena versus the Oranje being superior to them in every department.