Marco Verratti urges Italy to rediscover the enthusiasm they felt at UEFA EURO 2020 for the World Cup play-off with North Macedonia and protects his PSG teammate. ‘Let us not forget what Gianluigi Donnarumma did for Italy.’
The semi-final is with North Macedonia at the Stadio Barbera in Palermo on Thursday evening, then the winners go on to face either Portugal or Turkey on their turf.
Only one of these four sides will make it to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“We must have faith and like the Euros go far with enthusiasm and hunger,” said Verratti in his press conference.
The passion for the Azzurri that was felt not even a year ago has already dissipated into indifference after the failure to top their World Cup qualifying group.
“We each have different histories with our clubs, but once we are in the Nazionale, we give everything for this team.
“We won something extraordinary at the Euros, playing with enthusiasm and joy. People still talk about that victory and now they fear us more, the Portuguese players at PSG told me so.
“North Macedonia defend very deep, so we need to be wary of their counter-attacks. At the same time, we must find the spaces to cause them problems. We’re working on the tactics in training.”
The Azzurri failed to qualify in 2018, the only time since 1958 that they have missed the competition, so back-to-back absences would be a disaster.
“We are accustomed to playing under this kind of pressure,” continued Verratti. “We know it’s a very important moment and we cannot afford to miss the World Cup, but all we can do is give everything we’ve got. Our opponents will put in the performance of a lifetime, so we must do the same.
“When Roberto Mancini arrived, we were a broken team and he took us to win the European Championship. He worked on our minds above all, now we are a completely different side and we will do everything to go to Qatar.”
It’s not just the team that has lost momentum and confidence from last summer, but also individual players like Verratti’s PSG teammate Donnarumma, who was lambasted in the French media for his error in the Champions League against Real Madrid.
“When you walk into Coverciano, you forgot everything that happened before, the defeats at club level, and you remember what we did last summer.
“Donnarumma is disappointed by the error against Real Madrid, but Gigio is a special guy. He was already back working the next day with the same enthusiasm.
“Let us not forget what he did for Italy during the Euros. He is one of the best goalkeepers in the world.”
#Nazionale 🇮🇹
La ricetta di #Verratti 🗣 : “Vogliamo questo #Mondiale, servono la stessa allegria ed entusiasmo dell’Europeo”
Le dichiarazioni 👉🏻 https://t.co/L51rB6o0Em#ItaliaMacedoniaDelNord#Azzurri #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/Sm8lgoLVpD
— Nazionale Italiana ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@Azzurri) March 22, 2022
FORZA AZZURRI 👍
U can talk about enthusiasm and commitment all day long which I’m sure we have in abundance
But the big issue here is that we have stopped scoring goals,
Which can and should be easy solve by picking the best strickers not
Immobile or Belotti
Donna, don’t forget what Milan did for you and how you repaid them (:
Karma is a b*
If that was the case then he wouldn’t have won the Golden Ball at Euro 2020 AFTER having signed for PSG.
But yes, Karma is real. But it was metted out towards PSG.
Forget ‘Leave Britney Alone’. For the next 7 days it’s ‘Leave Gigio Alone’.