Giampiero Ventura believes Italy can close the gap on better national teams “through hard work”.
Italy were thrashed 3-0 by Spain on Saturday, making automatic qualification for the 2018 World Cup a distant possibility, but the Coach hopes the Azzurri can use the result as a “starting point”, beginning against Israel.
“Insigne No 10? I don’t want to make a big deal about it. It’s an important number for Italy and Lorenzo asked to wear it,” he said at a Press conference for Tuesday’s game.
Giampiero Ventura believes Italy can close the gap on better national teams “through hard work”.
Italy were thrashed 3-0 by Spain on Saturday, making automatic qualification for the 2018 World Cup a distant possibility, but the Coach hopes the Azzurri can use the result as a “starting point”, beginning against Israel.
“Insigne No 10? I don’t want to make a big deal about it. It’s an important number for Italy and Lorenzo asked to wear it,” he said at a Press conference for Tuesday’s game.
“World Cup? There’ll be some good teams there, but through hard work, we can close the gap on teams of a higher level.
“My first commitment against France was affected by physical problems. The same probably happened against Spain, although we probably would’ve lost anyway.
“With a bit more work behind us at a World Cup, I’m convinced that we’d have given a different account of ourselves against them.
“The players have given me more than I’d expected from them so far. Their participation has been absolute, even by those who I’d never worked with before.
“If we’ve had some positive results in recent years, it’s because there’s been a great deal of involvement.
“Israel? When we faced them, they put us in trouble and I’d have preferred to face them after a win, but they didn’t win their last match either.
“What we learned from both Spain games? "They were different. The last one told us that we still have to grow. The game at the Bernabeu must be a starting point for us.”