Another victory for Luciano Spalletti’s Italy. At the King Baldovino stadium in Brussels, the national team won 1-0 thanks to a goal scored by Sandro Tonali, qualifying for the Nations League quarter-finals and consolidating first place in group 2A. “The boys were good, in the second half the pitch became heavy and we lost a bit of clarity. We missed a few too many balls, on pitches like this it becomes essential to keep the ball because adapting to the opponents’ run becomes very difficult. When they came into our half of the field it became difficult but they were lions,” said the coach Luciano Spalletti at the end of the match.
This is the analysis of Tonali, scorer of the goal that decided the match: “It’s nice to score and find your first goal for the national team, but it’s even nicer to win like this: we suffered, played and showed that we want to play every game, we don’t concede. In this group there is great serenity, each of us he can’t wait for the next meeting. We feel good together, that’s the good thing.”
Among the best in the field Giovanni Di Lorenzo: “I’m happy because starting again after the bad period of the European Championship was easy and we are on the right path. There are also opponents but the idea is to control the match with play but we also need to fight and defend ourselves all together, we are all doing very well. The coach made the choice to start again with a new young group and we are happy, the path is the right one.”
Finally, this is the analysis of Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco: “It’s a shame for how it ended, the boys gave their all. We didn’t get into the game well, there was little intensity in the first 20 minutes. Italy plays in a very fluid way, you can see that they are in a good moment and they have a lot of confidence, we conceded the opening goal too easily.”