Giampiero Ventura defended his Italy record ahead of their World Cup play-off with Sweden. “I am satisfied with what we did since my arrival.”
The first leg of the World Cup play-off is in Stockholm tomorrow at 19.45 GMT, with the decider in Milan’s San Siro on Monday evening.
“I feel very calm. It is the most exciting and the most important match of my career, but just as risky as any other,” said the Coach in his Press conference.
Giampiero Ventura defended his Italy record ahead of their World Cup play-off with Sweden. “I am satisfied with what we did since my arrival.”
The first leg of the World Cup play-off is in Stockholm tomorrow at 19.45 GMT, with the decider in Milan’s San Siro on Monday evening.
“I feel very calm. It is the most exciting and the most important match of my career, but just as risky as any other,” said the Coach in his Press conference.
You can read the rest of his comments here.
Ventura was pressed on what Italy’s first World Cup play-off since 1997 meant in terms of his Azzurri tenure, but remained unbowed by criticism.
“I was satisfied with what we did since the day of my arrival. When I came here and saw only one could win the group, we said we’d try to be there to fight it out in Spain. We achieved that. We lost to a Spain side that was stronger than us.”
The Nazionale finished second in their group after a 1-1 draw with Spain in Turin and 3-0 defeat in Madrid, while they were also pegged back 1-1 by Macedonia.
“I looked back over everything on the flight here. We believed that we had the players to fight it out with Spain, but realised it wasn’t that simple, so we had to come second and hopefully in the top four seeds.
“We had to go for the play-offs, we’re in the play-offs, so after this we’ll see where we are.”
Ventura was asked what he would say to the squad in the locker room before kick-off, but insisted he had no need to fire up the troops.
“It’s such an important game that I don’t think we need words. We just need calm, belief and focus. Any words would be futile. We require the determination to get the result.”