Roberto Mancini insists the 5-2 defeat to Germany must not ‘wipe out what came before’ for this young Italy side. ‘The Nations League group remains wide open.’
The Azzurri had been so impressive in the Nations League until now with a 2-1 win over Hungary and draws with Germany and England.
Another nine changes were made to the starting XI and this time it was a transformation too far, as Italy looked disjointed from the start with huge gaps in defence.
It was the first time the Nazionale had conceded five goals since May 1957 against Yugoslavia in the Central European International Cup.
“It’s a pity to close like this, but Germany are good and we knew that. We allowed them too much space in the first half,” the coach told RAI Sport.
“There were some good things, despite the result, but of course it’s a pity. The group remains wide open.”
Because England were beaten 4-0 at home by Marco Rossi’s Hungary, that leaves it with Hungary on seven points, Germany six, Italy five and England two ahead of September’s remaining two fixtures.
“There were errors, because we didn’t defend well as a unit. Some things didn’t work, we were trying to recover, opened ourselves up to the counter-attack against these players, it’s always going to be a risk.”
Mancini had warned before the tournament that they would risk embarrassing defeats in order to blood the new players.
“This is the path, there are going to be risks and it absolutely does not wipe out what came before. There will be good moments and bad, it’s wide open and we’ll see what happens in September.
“We had more debutants again tonight, we had four or five chances, but Germany did better.”