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Euro 2024 qualifiers

10K views 438 replies 15 participants last post by  pirri 
#1 ·
vs England, March 23, 20.45, Napoli
vs Malta, March 26, 20.45, Ta Qali

Portieri: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint Germain), Wladimiro Falcone (Lecce), Alex Meret (Napoli), Ivan Provedel (Lazio);
Difensori: Francesco Acerbi (Inter), Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus), Alessandro Buongiorno (Torino), Matteo Darmian (Inter), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Alessio Romagnoli (Lazio), Giorgio Scalvini (Atalanta), Leonardo Spinazzola (Roma), Rafael Toloi (Atalanta);
Centrocampisti: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Davide Frattesi (Sassuolo), Jorginho (Arsenal), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Roma), Matteo Pessina (Monza), Sandro Tonali (Milan), Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain);
Attaccanti: Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo), Federico Chiesa (Juventus), Wilfried Gnonto (Leeds United), Vincenzo Grifo (Friburgo), Simone Pafundi (Udinese), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Mateo Retegui (Club Atletico Tigre), Gianluca Scamacca (West Ham United).

First call for Falcone, Buongiorno and the Argentinian Retegui, return after a long while for Romagnoli and Darmian
 
#3 ·
Mancini moans because Italy lacks goalscorers but if we look at the table of the serie A goalscorers there are two guys who have scored 9 and 7 goals respectively and Mancini has left them both out of the list. One, Zaccagni, is left out because he did what many other players did (pretended to be injured when called up, in previous games). The other one, Orsolini, is simply ignored. They are not center forwards but we do not necessarily need a center forward who scores, when other players can.
 
#4 ·
Reading an article on Football Italia from yesterday, it seems that Mancini still has no clue about the best lineup or formation for this team. I can't believe he still regards the 4-3-3 as "our system" and is putting Barella in there, who has always failed in that position.
 
#6 ·
According to what I have watched lately Di Lorenzo, Spinazzola and Berardi are in good shape, Toloi and Acerbi so and so and they usually play in a 3-man defense, Lorenzo Pellegrini is in a dire form and I thought he was semi-injured too, Barella is going through a pretty bad time. According to what I read Donnarumma and Verratti are blamed fort the CL exit of PSG. I really have no idea about Jorginho. Goal-guy should be the new Batistuta and in a very hot moment.
 
#14 · (Edited)
1-2 FT

The English NT parked the bus the way an Italian team of the 70s could have done.

Italy conceded the first half to England with a wrong starting lineup and above all a wrong approach. I'm not sure that Mancini should keep the job. It looks like luck has abandoned him and probably it should be time to move on with a different coach.
 
#15 ·
2nd half was all italy. I'm not sure it's about luck per say. Di Lorenzos handball was very unfortunate. What we don't have is a long distance shooter. Tonali is a headless chicken. Locatelli can strike a ball, albet he has now be re-designed as dino baggio without the heading ability but more creativity by allegri.

im not concerned. If chiesa was playing along with di marco and bastoni, this is a win for italy.
 
#19 ·
Mancini had a bout of amnesia and nostalgia mixed in his head today. He forgot what made Italy good and nullify England in the nation's league, and romanticized with how Italy won the Euro. He forgot that 3 years have passed in that time period and England has had time to grow in their approach, while we are resetting. Mancini had a hiccup today that you hope he gets cured soon. How he won the Euro has passed, time to use what is at your disposal.
 
#21 ·
You know this group could be more difficult than people realize. Couple of points, first of all Italy has to play the likes of Macedonia, the same Macedonia who beat Italy in World Cup playoff. Ukraine also reached playoff for WC and drew 2x with France who won the group, war will only give them extra spirit and motivation to play well. Now Italy has to go to England in autumn and most likely get a result.

Secondly, in June, while Eng, Ukraine, Mac, Malta (all other group opponents), play 2 fixtures, Italy will play the nation league finals, match against Spain and either 1st place or 3 place game. I just checked, so basically Italy will play catchup with 2 less games played going into September fixtures (Macedonia away and Ukraine home). The team already fked up for the WC.

At some point, it seems coach and players become too comfortable and something is missing to give the team the edge, the push. I can see this qualification go bad. I dont even understand why Mancini contract was extended till next WC. They gave him contract till 2026 but they did it in 2021, actually before the euros. It wasnt even reward for euros. Cant really be sugargoating Mancini after the WC failure. And meanwhile Ancelotti is heavily linked with Brazil.
 
#22 ·
As bad as this game was, especially the first half being one of the worst halves in their history that I have seen, it showed VAR for the fraud that it is from it's inception.

VAR is the most sophisticated match fixing tool in existence because it offers the illusion of objectivity. The secret is out, the ref can refuse to go to see a VAR recommended replay if he so chooses and they can show you what they want of the angles at their disposal.

The angles left out of today's poor penalty decision were the camera's behind the net. Why aren't we gettin to see that vantage point? We see the one where Di Lorenzo's hand is hidden behind Kane's arm, and in fact it appears to go off of Kane's arm and out of touch.

VAR is a hoax.

Sports uniform Shorts Sports equipment Player Sportswear
 
#24 ·
It's really a waste of time to follow this team until Mancini is fired. He has no clue what he is doing...

England are superior now - at least physically there are miles of difference. He should have played a more defensive and physical lineup with more in form players.

Bringing in a humiliated Conte to put some grinta back into this team would be great... hopefully before the next England match.
 
#27 ·
I strongly doubt that Conte would accept. I think he is done (for now) with international football as he said he wants a team he can train daily when he left and I don't think his opinion has changed.

Anyway, whoever is going to replace him, Mancini should leave or be fired. No doubt about it. It happened with Bearzot, Sacchi and Lippi. It is happening again. No matter what the coaches achieved before, when they enter the negative spiral there is no way out for their teams until they are in charge. First of all because they are not really able to change what has to be changed. Mancini pretends serie A offers nothing but at the same time he chooses to ignore the indications serie A gives. Zaccagni is in the top10 of serie A players, whatever source you use (I checked the ratings of gazzetta and the ranking of whoscored) and should be called up as a consequence. Some Italian players are on fire right now, others are not. He keeps using the ones who are not, above all at midfield where we would need fresh forces. And we have them.
 
#31 ·
What's even crazier is that these games are for Euro qualification. We won the Euro in 2020. I don't care about winning Euro 2024. We want the World Cup back. Mancini can basically use this Euro process without any pressure and start playing youngsters in the lineup so they can be ready for 2026. Bonucci, Acerbi, Jorginho, Verratti, Berardi, etc should be banned from the team. There is no point playing them.
 
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