Clear path in the Nations League. Not in reality, given the draw last October 10th against Belgium at the Olimpico, but it’s as if it really were, because Pellegrini’s expulsion at 2-0 for Italy in the 40th minute was decisive for the result final, after the absolute dominance of the blue. It matters little, however, because in the other four matches of the group only victories came and the certain thing, the one that interests us most of all, is that our national team is healed, it is strong, it is feared by everyone and can win with anyone. Yes, because looking beyond the results the most important thing is something else. Now Italy is a team, again, finally. The game is there, the alchemy as well, with the group that is solid and knows how to both play and suffer. The match against France on Sunday will serve to maintain first place and to be three seeded in the quarter-final draw on November 22nd, but nothing will be able to change things and dampen the enthusiasm.
The European disaster is just a bad memory. How much did it help Spalletti?
And to think that at the time of the draw for the Nations League group, few would have thought that it would have been a triumphal ride for Italy, given the opponents and above all given the starting point of the Azzurri, who were coming off yet another disappointment, which this time it wasn’t linked to the World Cup. What had returned from Germany, after the knockout against Switzerland in the European Championship in one of the worst matches ever, was a group that seemed to be at the end of the credits, only a distant relative of the one that three years earlier had thrilled the whole team our country, but in just four and a half months everything has changed, positively. Spalletti’s team rose from the ashes like a phoenix, beat France at home, as well as Belgium, and sent an unmistakable signal to all the other national teams. Rewinding the tape, the question we can ask ourselves is: how much did the disaster help Euro 2024? The answer is clear: a lot. Luciano Spalletti changed his team, starting with the formation, and everyone, from the coach to the last member of the staff, including the players, took a bath in fundamental humility. And Italy started again, stronger than ever, creating the certainties it had lost in Germany.
The “new” bomber jackets as icing on the cake.
In the days leading up to the match against Belgium, attention was focused above all on Mateo Retegui and Moise Keantop scorer and runner-up in Serie A after the first 12 matchdays. The Atalanta player started from the start, the Viola took over in the second half, but the goals did not arrive. A problem? Absolutely not. Just think about the fact that in this Nations League they have already scored (2 goals for the first and 1 for the second) and this figure could already be enough, but beyond that there are the sensations, which are worth a lot in football. And the feeling is that both will be protagonists for a long time with the blue shirt, because in the summer they chose the best clubs for them. Bergamo and Florence, two places that Retegui and Kean will need to mature, to find continuity, with Spalletti who will only have the task of putting them in a position to do what they live for: goals.
Welcome back Ranieri.
A dutiful conclusion to the great return of Claudio Ranieri. First the farewell to his great career as a coach after his salvation in Cagliari, then the desire to return, perhaps as coach of a national team, and finally the inevitable yes to his Roma. The Giallorossi’s moment is one of the toughest in recent years, perhaps the toughest, and the only man capable of restoring serenity to the skies of Trigoria is Sir Claudio himself, loved beyond measure by anyone who loves Roma. His task will be complicated, but it was impossible for someone like him to give up and not come to the aid of the club he has always had in his heart. It will be his third adventure in the Giallorossi, after the one that began in 2009 thanks to Rosella Sensi and Daniele Pradè who made a “rude” to Totti, Perrotta and Pizarro who had chosen Roberto Mancini, in which he came close to the Scudetto, and the parenthesis of 2019, when the call came at another complicated time. Now the new challenge, which will lead him to become a manager of Roma. All that remains is to wish the best to a coach who wrote indelible pages on the benches he sat on, a symbol of a football that sometimes still speaks through feelings.