Italy U21 coach Paolo Nicolato has praised his players for a crucial win against Iceland: ‘It wasn’t easy, some of them didn’t know each other.’
“We knew it would be a tough game, Iceland had always won at home. We had a new line-up and we are satisfied. I am happy, many of our players made their debut today,” Nicolato told Rai Sport.
Italy U21 coach Paolo Nicolato has praised his players for a crucial win against Iceland: ‘It wasn’t easy, some of them didn’t know each other.’
“We knew it would be a tough game, Iceland had always won at home. We had a new line-up and we are satisfied. I am happy, many of our players made their debut today,” Nicolato told Rai Sport.
“Two years ago we had a team that could have won the Euro but things have changed. We’ve been keeping changing players and systems, despite this we've always given our best on the pitch and we often take the rewards.
“Some of those who played today didn’t even know each other, it wasn’t easy, they deserve the praise for what they did."
Nicolato had to call-up 58 players split into two teams that trained separately and slept in different hotels to prevent the spread of possible Covid cases.
Some of his best players, including Alessandro Bastoni, were then promoted to Italy senior team as Roberto Mancini had to replace players who had been banned from travelling by local ealth authorities.
“We didn’t concede a single shot on target, we made a mistake and they scored, we didn’t deserve to concede a goal."
Italy can now move even closer to qualifying for Euro 2021 with a win against Luxemburg on Sunday.
“We are close but we need to go ahead with the same commitment," Nicolato concluded.