Alessandro Florenzi assures Italy CT Antonio Conte hasn’t eased-up – “we had three sessions yesterday!”
The Azzurri boss has already announced that he’ll step down after this summer’s European Championships, leading to fears his mind, and those of the players, could be elsewhere.
“The relationship absolutely hasn’t changed,” Florenzi explained in a Press conference at Coverciano.
Alessandro Florenzi assures Italy CT Antonio Conte hasn’t eased-up – “we had three sessions yesterday!”
The Azzurri boss has already announced that he’ll step down after this summer’s European Championships, leading to fears his mind, and those of the players, could be elsewhere.
“The relationship absolutely hasn’t changed,” Florenzi explained in a Press conference at Coverciano.
“We all want to do well at the Euros to represent the nation in the best way, we want to have our say and make a good impression. Conte is as fired-up as ever.
“Let’s finish this adventure in the best way, we must assert our quality and make life difficult for anyone who comes up against Italy.
“If we thought Conte had a different attitude, yesterday we did three sessions…”
Inevitably, the horrific terror attacks in Brussels this morning dominated the questioning in the Press conference.
“When we played there we had no problems. This morning we learned with great regret and sorrow what had happened, but we have to look forward and not get caught up in fear.
“I called Radja Nainggolan [his Belgian teammate at Roma] first to see how he was. He was shocked like everyone else, we talked about it without too much apprehension.
“We’re people, but we go to the Euros to represent a nation. We’ll be in France for an important competition which should bring joy, not anxiety, to those who come to see it.
“Matches behind closed doors? We’re there to play, we don’t make those decisions.”
Florenzi was then asked about two of the Azzurri’s opponents this summer, Belgium and Sweden.
“Sweden is [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic,” Florenzi said.
“It won’t be easy to stop him. He’s one of the best in the world, stopping him means stopping at least 50 per cent of Sweden.
“Belgium? They’re candidates to win it, I know Radja and he’s one of the best midfielders out there. They’re an excellent team.”