Marco Rossi is prepared for Hungary’s tough Nations League clash against a ‘quality’ Italy side tomorrow.
The Italian coach oversaw Hungary’s first win over England since the 1962 World Cup in Chile, their first victory in 15 attempts. They will now be looking to keep up this momentum as they face a confusing Azzurri side tomorrow evening at the Orogel Stadium in Cesena.
Speaking in a press conference this evening, Rossi first discussed the state of his squad ahead of tomorrow’s clash against Italy.
“We are fine, the boys have recovered well. Clearly, when there is so little time you don’t train and only do recovery work. However, from the various tests it seems the boys have recovered and tomorrow at the start of the game we will be 100%.
“Working as coach, I return to Italy often. I haven’t been away from Italy for a long time and when I return to Italy I stay with my family.
“But the emotion is there, because basically after 10 years we have gone from being unknown in Hungary to facing our own national team, Tonight we are still not, although I have met Mancini and his staff, but tomorrow night there will be an uproar.”
He commented on Italy’s failure to qualify for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar and what kind of match he expects tomorrow.
“The fact that Italy didn’t qualify for the World Cup was a shock for everyone, for us Italians but also for those who aren’t. They proved to be a great team and it still are. Unfortunately, they had many adverse episodes that lasted until the match against North Macedonia.
“There had been a few lucky episodes during the European Championship, but after that everything was against them. In Italy, especially in football, we want to be the best, but in this moment we have to accept that we are not the best but among the best.
“Mancini has shown that he has vision and I believe that for the immediate and near future several players who were sent home for various reasons will be part of the national team, but Italy is young and has quality and quantity.
“I, as an Italian fan but also as an insider, would be much less of a pessimist for this failure to qualify for the World Cup.”
The Hungary coach gave his thoughts on the Nations League as a competition. Italy drew their first match of this edition, picking up a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara in Bologna.
“For us it is very good. I don’t know how many more times we will have the chance to measure ourselves against national teams of this level and then thanks to the Nations League we qualified for the European Championship.
“Without the Nations League, we would have been eliminated in 2019. This Nations League will give us points to take part in the play-offs in case we do not qualify for the European Championship.
“For us it is very useful, for Germany, Italy and England it may be different but it is a UEFA competition and you have to follow it and respect it.”
Finally, Rossi spoke about the difficulty of the opposition in Hungary’s Nations League group – a group that also contains Italy, Germany and England.
“In football, if you can speak of some sporting miracle, it is unlikely to be repeated. To have scored three points against England means not finishing the round with zero as many had predicted.
“When you talk about numbers, statistics, you have to be objective. We are the intruders in this group but we are here and we want to play. We want to leave the pitch with our heads held high, knowing that we have given everything.
“At the European Championship with France, Germany and Portugal we finished fourth, but Hungary was happy at the end of the round and that was enough for us.
“Despite the fact that our level is not that of Italy, the Hungarian national team is followed by 10 million people and proportionally the Hungarian fans are as passionate as the Italian ones.”
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— TUTTOmercatoWEB (@TuttoMercatoWeb) June 6, 2022
When is Mancini announcing his lineup?