Elena Linari underlined her and Italy’s disappointment following their exit from Euro 2022, with the 1-0 loss to Belgium tonight confirming their fate.
The Azzurre did not have a particularly positive tournament in England this summer. Their campaign kicked off against pre-tournament favourites France and they duly lost 5-1, looking leagues behind Les Bleus. Their second match, a 1-1 draw against Iceland, did little to excite, leaving everything up to the last game.
Despite putting in their best performance of Euro 2022, Italy again failed to hit the mark and suffered a frustrating 1-0 loss to Belgium, knocking them out of the tournament.
Speaking to Rai Due after the match, Linari was clearly frustrated and disappointed with the Azzurre’s elimination.
“There’s a lot of regret, we’re sorry for this elimination, nobody expected it. There were many expectations, perhaps even too many. There was still a gap that Italy must fill with France.
“We’re sorry for the draw with Iceland, today we didn’t deserve to be knocked out but it happened. We’ll take the elimination and from September we’ll start again stronger than before.”
Italy still have the chance to secure guaranteed qualification to the upcoming 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, but they’ll need to put in strong performances against Moldova and Romania at the start of September.
Linari , “There were many expectations , perhaps too many”, what a lame excuse, sounding just like the coach Bertolini . It NOT too much to expect that Italy should have advanced out of the group stage behind France against teams like Iceland and Belgium who’ve never been there before and not have lost 2 of 3 matches and only tied the other against Iceland thus finishing LAST in the group.
Linari, yes you and the team deserved to lose because of your horrendous play throughout the tournament and I’m so sick of hearing the Bertolini and Mancini make excuses when they lose that the “players were a little nervous” about what ? They’re supposed to be professionals and experienced to deal with these situations whereas the other lower ranked teams don’t fall into this mentality and feel they can beat even the best teams. Italy would do well to hire some sports psychologists and choose coaches that inspire confidence ,leadership and refuse to accept mediocrity either from themselves or the players.
I don’t say this lightly but Linari’s defending was the worst I’ve seen in my life by any team.