Belgium-Italy, Spalletti: "The boys fought like lions"

Brussels (Belgium), 14 November 2024 – The race continues in Nations League of Luciano Spalletti's Italy, who Belgium defeated 1-0 and is one step away from finishing top of Group 2 Against France on Sunday evening, the Azzurri will only need one point to complete their mission. This evening, however, on Belgian soil, Italy only needed one goal - their first in blue - scored by Sandro Tonali in the 11th minute on an assist from Di Lorenzo, in the opening stages of a first half that Italy controlled with personality and then came within a whisker of a second goal on at least a couple of other occasions. In the second half, the expected reaction arrived from Belgium who began to press. Italy did not give up on attacking and between the 54th and 55th minute they again came close to scoring the 2-0 first with a deadly counterattack by Retegui and then with a play by Di Lorenzo. Errors that the Azzurri risked paying dearly for in the final straight of the match when Belgium further raised the revs by also hitting the post with Faes and failed to find the equaliser also thanks to some decisive saves by Donnarumma.

A victory that leaves us with great hope also for what was seen on the pitch over the 90 minutes, an aspect that certainly did not go unnoticed by the eyes of the Italian national coach Luciano Spalletti: “The boys were good because in the second half the pitch got a bit heavy – the coach told Rai 1 –. We lost a bit of lucidity when we had possession of the ball. We lost a few too many balls and, as we said at the start of the match, on pitches like that it becomes essential to keep the ball. Adapting to the opponents' runs becomes very costly. When we crowded together a bit it became difficult to find solutions to play the ball on the ground and when they came into our half of the pitch it was a bit complicated, but the boys fought like lions”. Niciolò Rovella's debut was more than positive: “Very good. His debut was great and so was everyone's attitude. The boys showed that they are a tough team”. Now a point is enough to finish top of the group: “We have always said that, since we are Italy, there is always the possibility of finding at least 30 players to make a strong national team. It has been said 500 times. They just needed to find the right solutions and have the opportunity to play as a team. They did that on their own because they are strong guys." Man of the match Sandro Tonali was also radiant, author of his first goal for the national team: “It's nice to score the first goal for the national team but also to win like this, because in the end we suffered and showed that we can play every match without suffering. This is our big change. It's also nice because there's serenity in the group. This does us good in every meeting. Each of us can't wait for the next time because now there's stability. We have fun on the pitch and we feel good together”. On the match: “Today we played against a very strong team. We looked for our spaces in the match, starting very strong. We always look for our solutions in the match. We also managed to keep it simple: even tonight nobody invented anything. We are good at doing our things well”.