Sandro Tonali shook off the emotion of his Italy debut after just 30 seconds and the Brescia midfielder described himself as a mixture of Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso.
The 19-year-old came off the bench in this evening’s 5-0 victory against Liechtenstein.
“I felt wonderful, as not everyone gets to play for the Nazionale. After 30 seconds where I was a little emotional that it was really happening, I settled down,” the Brescia midfielder told Rai Sport.
Sandro Tonali shook off the emotion of his Italy debut after just 30 seconds and the Brescia midfielder described himself as a mixture of Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso.
The 19-year-old came off the bench in this evening’s 5-0 victory against Liechtenstein.
“I felt wonderful, as not everyone gets to play for the Nazionale. After 30 seconds where I was a little emotional that it was really happening, I settled down,” the Brescia midfielder told Rai Sport.
“The Coach told us all to be ready to play, so I had an idea. Everyone in the squad was very helpful to the newcomers like me and it felt easy to come in.
“I don’t know how much I’ll play, we’ll take it game by game and you can never tell in football what will happen.
“The system is different, so is the timing and there is obviously a lot more quality in the Italy side, but the role and position remain the same.”
Tonali has been compared to very different Italy players, from Andrea Pirlo to Daniele De Rossi and Gennaro Gattuso. How does he see himself?
“It’s tough to pick one of those champions. Maybe a mix of all of them would be perfect! I guess there are similarities with Pirlo in a way, but I also put a lot of grit in there, so maybe more Gattuso.”