Luigi Di Biagio admits his Italy Under-21 side are going to Slovakia to win tomorrow, but he warns them against complacency.
The Azzurrini play the first leg of their Euro 2015 qualification play-off in Zlate Moravce very much expected to progress through to the competition finals next summer.
Luigi Di Biagio admits his Italy Under-21 side are going to Slovakia to win tomorrow, but he warns them against complacency.
The Azzurrini play the first leg of their Euro 2015 qualification play-off in Zlate Moravce very much expected to progress through to the competition finals next summer.
For their Coach, though, it won’t be an easy test against opponents he personally has more than one landmark against.
“It’s a strange twist of fate. Here in Slovakia I made my debut with the national team as a player and against them came my first game with the Under-21s last August,” Di Biagio has told reporters today.
“I remember very well the friendly a year ago, we suffered a lot in the first half and, whilst creating much, we had to work hard to impose ourselves.
“We will have to play the ball at speed to curb their aggression, we are ready for a real footballing battle. Slovakia are an opponent who according to many are easy to handle, but I know this will not be the case.
“To close out the play-off in the first leg will be impossible, but the desire is to win the game.
“My biggest concern is that the kids may believe we have resolved all the problems, but the biggest mistakes from Italians is to think that we are better than others.
“If we think that this game is a walkover, as I am hearing from the outside, then obviously we do not understand the value of Slovakia and we will not understand what kind of game we face tomorrow.
“Again, if we do not get our mindset right in the first half hour, we will not be able to get out of our penalty area because they do let you breathe.”
Di Biagio had to bring Daniele Rugani into his squad following Alessio Romagnoli’s late injury, despite the Empoli man preparing this week with the senior team.
“We have asked for support from Antonio [Conte] and he has been very collaborative because he knows what we are playing for and the problem that we had.
“I want to publicly thank Antonio because the return of Rugani is important for us. If I had Luca Antei available then I would never have asked for Daniele.
“The collaboration between us Coaches is total and this is a demonstration of that fact.”
Image source: vivoazzurro.it