This World Cup qualifier in the European zone can be said to be ups and downs, such as Portugal and Italy have to be relegated to the play-offs at the end, fighting for a Ticket to the World Cup. But just when we thought that Italy and Portugal, the two European Champions, would meet in the final, Italy was once again out of the blue! In the face of the recognized weak north Macedonia, they failed to live up to our expectations in the first round and directly exited, which is also an indirect "self-sacrifice" to help Portugal, and Portugal with a wary heart is also a direct 2-0 opponent successfully qualified for the World Cup.
Just when Italian fans around the world are "heartbroken", the Italian media "Corriere della Sera" is also too hot, they found the head coach Ventura when they missed the World Cup last time, and interviewed him. The first question at the beginning of the game was quite "enemies meet, extremely red-eyed", when asked what he thought of the current Italian coach Mancini, Ventura directly began to complain: "After losing to Macedonia, Gravina (the current Italian president) has been staying with Mancini, and I was left alone in San Siro, as if I were the only sinner!" Then the 74-year-old coach said somewhat badly: "I was eliminated by Spain and Sweden in the last edition, but I don't like to make comparisons, and I hope that Italy will return to the best of the world as soon as possible." ”
Ventura also revealed the current problems in Italian football in the interview, he believes that Italy's current problems are institutional, "Until now Italy is full of dilapidated stadiums, some clubs' accounts are not enough, and the Italian national team has also been affected, few young people who are effective in top clubs have appeared, and people are more willing to invest in foreign players." And it all has to do with the coach, it takes time and risk to develop the young players in the club, and if the coach knows that there is no good result, then he will not waste time developing these young players. ”
However, before comparing the records of these two coaches, we need to see their records, the last time Ventura led italy against group G and Spain in the same group, the same only the first place in the group can qualify their biggest opponent should be Spain, and they are 7 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss in the group stage ranked 2nd, just lost to Spain they can only rank 2nd, helplessly can only participate in the play-offs regrettably lost to Sweden. And this World Cup qualifier Italy is 8 games 4 wins and 4 draws in the second place to participate in the World Preliminary Tournament, and against an opponent like Macedonia was defeated, literally Mancini's Italian record is not even as good as the previous edition, but is this really the case?
We can see that Italy's loss in this World Cup is more due to the lack of wingers Andre Chiesa Jr. and "WeiYi Left" Spinazzola, but what about Ventura? He contributed the classic scene at the end with Insigne also replaced by De Rossi! It can be said that Mancini is a clever woman who is difficult to cook without rice, Ventura is criticized more for the tactical level of the problem, in the face of Spain's 0-3 defeat, Spain sent a 6 midfielder without a front, and Ventura also stubbornly sent a 4-2-4 lineup, the lack of thickness in the midfield They were directly played by the opponent, and the play-offs faced the tall Sweden This "tactical ghost" is determined to play the side cross! Even more disturbing is that standing in the penalty area are two centers, Immobile and Gabbiadini, who are only around 185.
It can be said that the current situation of Italian football is not willing to see, after all, as the first five major leagues that Chinese fans have come into contact with, the number of Italian fans in China may be crushing, and it is useless to blame anyone whether Ventura or Mancini, not to mention ventura also said his true thoughts as a coach, how long will the dilemma of Italian football last? Maybe we'll see a change after this summer.