FIGC President Gabriele Gravina admits Italy ‘did not expect’ their World Cup failure, but he hopes Roberto Mancini will continue as coach after winning EURO 2020.
The Azzurri finished second in their World Cup qualifying group after a run of disappointing draws, then lost the play-off semi-final to North Macedonia this evening.
Despite over 30 attempts on goal, they were beaten by a stoppage-time Aleksandar Trajkovski effort from distance.
“This is football and when you are in sport, you have to accept these verdicts,” Gravina told RAI Sport.
World Cup Play-Offs | Italy 0-1 North Macedonia: Azzurri fail again
“I am truly sad for our fans. The great joy we had over the summer remains, but also the great bitterness for this defeat. We didn’t expect it.
“These lads gave our country a wonderful dream just a few months ago. We mustn’t rest on our laurels, though, and this evening again shows us that there is something we need to work on in our football movement.
“We need to understand what needs doing, for example resolving the problem of our younger players not getting playing time.”
Gravina was asked if he was angry that the Lega Serie A refused to postpone one round of games so that Mancini could have more than three days to prepare for this play-off.
“It’s disappointing the lads basically only had one full day of training. That doesn’t help, but I don’t want to cause controversy.”
The coach has not resigned, saying it was too early to talk about his future, but will the FIGC stand by their man?
“I hope Mancini continues with us. He has a commitment with us for this project, I hope he can shake off this elimination just like all the Italians and that he remains at the helm to continue our work together.”
Gravina also sat next to Mancini in the post-match press conference, an unusual gesture and a strong show of support.
“Just as we accepted the praise last summer, we must accept the criticism coming our way, but I must try to protect this Nazionale. We go forward with heads held high.
“We mustn’t lose the enthusiasm of last summer and we saw that strong bond between the fans and the team again this evening. Criticism is fine, but we don’t want the risk of doing even more damage.”
Gravina did hit back at the clubs, which he accused of focusing too much on foreign players and also of showing too little support to the Nazionale.
“Our coaches have a very difficult job choosing players because only circa 30 per cent of the youth team players are Italian.
“Another issue is that while the lads arrive with enthusiasm, every time we call them up, the clubs put up resistance. They see the Nazionale as more of an irritation than an opportunity.”
Bad idea. Turn the page.
Please tell me how European champions are not in World Cup . Nite mare
Mancini demonstrated nothing that indicates he should keep his job. The team he put on the field was poorly prepared, poorly managed, showed poor tactics, and had no attacking quality. The same issues that have been present going back to September.
Your an idiot and could see the door also
The league is a joke this is what humiliation is . Serie a is not even on par with Portuguese league . Might as well pick players from serie b at this rate . How do you get knocked out by north Macedonia . I never thought 2018 could be outdone but it has
The league is a joke they need to put cap on foreign players at 30% max. Who cares about europe they dont win anything regardless. Need to change the system
8 years of failure
Mancini should stay. Too many injuries to key players. No confidence. They lost to a team playing 10 man defense (again!).
First time i skip the article and go here to comments, the commenters are sharp too bad nobody listens to us.
you know i grew up around baggio, del piero, totti, buffon etc and those guys had hard games too but at least they found a way, this is awful and I can’t watch this spectacle anymore,
Sorry but true-Jorgihno’s mean pride cost us dearly
AND now we can confirm WHY SERIE A decided to run their tournament in the US during the World Cup
Most of the shooting was appalling with so many chances. They could not even hit the target.
and this is the problem with all of Italian soccer…there in the headlines!!
As I said before
Not much difference in the decision making between Ventura and Mancini in their World Cup qualifying
No surprise here. Those who follow Italian soccer knew this was a good possibility that we’d miss the World Cup again. If you look back at the 2006 team, top Italian players were playing on Top Italian teams. Now, the Roma‘s, Juve’s, Inter, Milan, Napoli all play a majority of foreigners, while young Italian talent just sits on the bench. Heck, look at some of the lower tier teams in Seria A, they to barely have Italians playing for them. Until the % of Italian players playing full time changes, this will be the norm for Italy. Nothing changed after the 2018 disaster and we paid for it again today. Will 4 years from now be any different without any drastic changes???
American boys it is not soccer and has nothing to do with foreigners. England is full of them and yet they still beat farmers in their group games. How many Macedonians play at the highest level? Italian players, personnel and the whole structure is outdated, overrated and stale. How they won the Euro’s is beyond me, but they did so playing attacking football. Mancini suddenly did an Allegri and went into his shell playing timid, indecisive and scared football.
Mancini made the same mistake as Lippi, too loyal to the same players and too stubborn to change tactics.
Bring on Pirlo to coach
Mancini brought the team way up, then crashing down. It is truly unbelievable. Thanks for the ride but time to move on
Mancini was stubborn by choosing the same attackers who fail to score once again.
Italian football paid the bitter price unfortunately.
I also agree that Italian teams must invest more into Italian talents and help Azzuri with training schedules.
Joe del Monte is 100% correct. This is an exact Lippi move. He rode the same horse because they were on the field in the final.
It shouldn’t matter. The starting 11 should always be the players who have produced recently, not the ones that won something a eight months ago.
Definitely a home grown problem for years that has been leading them to failure when 30% of italian in seria A who barely play or are 2nd string what did u think would happen. It’s a tragedy to italy to it youth generational and treasonous for all those who don’t speak about it. This is as clear as day not sure why everybody skirts around it. Fugc politicians team owners are all in on it because it’s $$$$ they need to overhaul the entire system and bring it back to what it was.
Både Mancini og Gravina taklet ikke den viktigste oppgaven og må gå.
Dette er hva ekte ledere gjør etter fiasko.
Både Mancini og Gravina taklet ikke den viktigste opgaven
og må gå.
Dette er hva ekte ledere gjør etter fiasko.