Giampiero Ventura admits “it would be a catastrophe” if Italy missed out on World Cup qualification.
The Azzurri will almost certainly have to go through the play-offs to reach Russia, with Spain three points ahead with a superior goal difference.
“I’d say it would be a catastrophe,” Ventura said when asked about missing out on qualification in today’s Press conference.
“Most recently out starters in midfield were [Daniele] De Rossi and [Marco] Verratti, and the first reserve was [Lorenzo] Pellegrini.
Giampiero Ventura admits “it would be a catastrophe” if Italy missed out on World Cup qualification.
The Azzurri will almost certainly have to go through the play-offs to reach Russia, with Spain three points ahead with a superior goal difference.
“I’d say it would be a catastrophe,” Ventura said when asked about missing out on qualification in today’s Press conference.
“Most recently out starters in midfield were [Daniele] De Rossi and [Marco] Verratti, and the first reserve was [Lorenzo] Pellegrini.
“All three will be missing, but whoever plays will hopefully prove themselves to be an important resource for the national team.
“De Rossi is out and he’ll go [back to Roma], and we’re without Pellegrini and Verratti too. Paris Saint-Germain sent us the scans [on Verratti].
“As for Andrea Belotti, we did Torino a favour by not bringing him to Coverciano, we allowed him to be evaluated by his club as they requested.
“It’s not important that he didn’t come to the training camp.
“I’m not thinking about the play-offs, we need to think about the next two and then based on who we meet we’ll make our evaluations.”
Ventura was then asked if he’d stick with the 4-2-4 formation for the games with Macedonia and Albania.
“We’ll need to evaluate things but the philosophy doesn’t change. The problem isn’t the formation, it’s how it’s interpreted.
“Two days ago we could have discussed certain things, but [Nicolò] Barella, [Bryan] Cristante and [Roberto] Gagliardini have never been part of this group.
“We’re still Italy though, and we have to improve a lot of things. When we meet strong teams we’ll need to be well prepared.
“We’ll do a lot of training before the World Cup, but right now we only have 48 hours.”