EURO 2016 - An Italian Perspective

Ireland and Italy have been paired together in Group E and will compete with Belgium and Sweden in an attempt to progress further at the EURO 2016 Championships. Although this draw presents Ireland with quite a difficult task of progressing, personally I'm excited about the draw, since I now reside in Italy. Over the past week I've had an opportunity to take a small glimpse at how Italy perceives the draw.

The Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy's main sports newspaper famously printed on pink paper, previewed the group a week ago. Although the newspaper indicated the Azzurri need to be careful of Ireland, as 'Ireland shouldn't be underestimated', the editorial decision to write the preview of Ireland as a small 30 line single-column preview, wedged between two large and equal-sized previews of Belgium and Sweden, making up the rest of the print space on the page suggests a contradiction in the message being portrayed. Clearly, the Italian sports media believe Belgium and Sweden are the teams who possess the biggest danger to Italy's hopes of progressing.

The Gazzetta dello Sport preview at least acknowledged some truths and accuracies about Ireland's qualification campaign, while it also highlighted what it considers the key players in the Irish team. It praised Ireland's improvement under Martin O'Neill, mentioning him as Giovanni Trapattoni's successor. Neither Keane, Roy or Robbie were even mentioned, which is perhaps somewhat surprising.

“In the last 18 months the national team under Martin O'Neill, who succeeded Trapattoni in 2013, has made progress, moving from 70^th to 31^st in the FIFA rankings.

“The star is Jonathan Walters, the 32 year old Stoke City attacker, who with 5 goals, including a double against Bosnia in the play-offs, is the 'Bomber' of the squad. The emerging talent is Robbie Brady, the 23 year old left winger of Norwich City.

“O'Neill's men play in England (the Premier League, Championship and League One) and USA. The average age is high: only Brady and Hendrick are the regulars below the age of 25.”

Not satisfied with this brief synopsis of the Ireland team, and also hungry to get a better feel for Italy's outlook, I decided to interview a local footballing enthusiast and ask his opinion. Francesco Mazzoni, goalkeeper for Olimpia Quartesana, a local football team in Ferrara Emilia-Romagna, gave me a better insight into what lies in store for Ireland next summer.

Firstly, I asked Francesco to tell me his hopes and expectations on Italy's chances at the tournament.

“It can be difficult because Italy isn't the strongest team in the group. Belgium are a lot stronger than Italy, and Ireland have a good chance to qualify. I think the hardest opponent is Belgium because they're currently 1st in the FIFA rankings. In a recent friendly they played Italy and beat us 3-1.”

That friendly was played on 13^th November 2015, and although undoubtedly an indication of Belgium's current stature as the best team in the world right now, there is obviously a lot of pressure on Belgium to perform and achieve something. Italy are the team in Group E that has pedigree in terms of winning, yet Francesco echoed the same respect as the Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Ireland is a pretty strong team. They're really physical and a really hard team to beat. Ireland is really difficult in a physical way because Irish football is totally different from Italian football. In the physical aspect Ireland can surpass Italy.”

So, how well can Italy expect to do in this tournament. Francesco seems to doubt Italy's chances of winning the tournament, and I don't think he's the only one in the country with that belief. Italians seem quite content with not being the favourites in their group for once. It may even allow the team to perform without pressure.

“I think Italy won't win, but I think we can reach at least the semi-finals. That would be excellent. I predict we'll lose in the semi-finals.”

I also asked Francesco to tell me more about the Italian team and manager Antonio Conte. While not necessarily a big fan of Conte, he acknowledged that Italy were unbeaten during qualification.

“I don't personally like Conte. I prefer other trainers. I think he's doing a good job though. Italy were unbeaten during qualifying, but I thought he'd call up more younger players than he has. We are still in 2006 with our heads. For example, Buffon is the national goalkeeper since before 2000”

One thing resonant in what Francesco told me was how the World Cup triumph in 2006, which will have its 10 year anniversary next summer, is still on the minds of Italians. Perhaps this anniversary will reignite expectation among the nation, especially as Italy progress. Yet, only two members of that squad will definitely be part of the EURO 2016 squad: Roma's De Rossi and the evergreen Gianluigi Buffon. Andrea Pirlo is unlikely to be included in the tournament squad, although he has been called up recently by Conte.

Another player unlikely to be in the squad is the man who lit up Italy's EURO 2012 campaign, and indeed scored against Ireland in Poznan on the 18^th of June in the last meeting between the nations. Still young at 25, Mario Balotelli's career has taken a huge dip since, and having barely featured at all this season for AC Milan he is currently in the football wilderness. Francesco seems to believe he still has a lot to offer, but needs to do a lot to have a chance of making the tournament.

“Italy's best striker is Balotelli, but he needs to be more focused. He's still young and he is one of the strongest players we have, but he needs to be focused.”

I asked Francesco to compare today's team with the team that beat Ireland 2-0 four years ago at the last European Championships and he gave some interesting insight into the team. Perhaps most surprising, is that Francesco believes there is a ready-made replacement in waiting for Andrea Pirlo and that this tournament could be the moment for PSG's Marco Verratti (23 years old) to shine.

“I think Italy is better now because we have younger players, like (Marco) Verratti and (Graziano) Pelle, and they can be useful. I think that Pelle is at his peak now, but Verrati, I think he could achieve something more. He went straight from Serie B with Pescara to PSG.

“Our formation is four defenders, 3 midfielders and 3 attackers. Italy isn't extremely attacking or defensive, we're quite balance. We're not a really fast team, we don't really have any players with pace, except Candreva. But we're really good at keeping the ball. Verratti and Candreva are very good technical players.

“In my opinion Verratti is the best player. He's young, he's very strong and he can control the game. He can even take the place of Pirlo, but I don't know if he's as good as Pirlo. Maybe in the future.”

This is likely to be Gianluigi Buffon's swan song on the international stage. Italy's captain since 2010, the legendary goalkeeper will be 38 by the time the tournament begins. He has amassed 154 international caps, having made his debut in 1997. He has been in Italy's national team ever since becoming first choice during the EURO 2000 qualifying campaign, missing that tournament through injury. He is only one of three players to have played at five World Cups (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014), while EURO 2016 will be his fourth European Championships.

“Buffon is one of the greatest goalkeepers ever and been in the game for a long time, and when you talk about Italian goalkeepers, you instantly think about Buffon. Of course, we had other great goalkeepers like (Dino) Zoff, but Buffon is one of the greatest players that has ever played for Italy. He's won a lot with the national team and with Juventus. This will be the last tournament he plays. but he could continue to be called up to the national team, if he wants, because he's that good.”

As a goalkeeper he clearly is an inspiration for somebody like Francesco, yet according to Francesco Italy have plenty of talent waiting in the wings. He doesn't feel Buffon is as good as he once was and there are others capable of replacing him.

“Buffon's aging and there are other goalkeepers that are really impressive now like Salvatore Sirigu (PSG), Daniele Padelli (Torino) and Federico Marchetti (Lazio). Also there are two young goalkeepers who I think will be really good. Mattia Perrin, who is 23 has been playing regularly in Serie A for Genoa for a few seasons already. There's also Pierluigi Gollini. He's 20 years old and plays for Hellas Verona. When I was younger I played with him. He moved to Manchester United and has been starting this season for Hellas Verona in Serie A.”

Buffon is perhaps past his best, yet as captain and national hero, he'll be a sure starter. He carries the 2006 spirit with him into the tournament and gives Italy a winning mentality. He has faced many great strikers in his time, but will he be fearful or even nervous of facing somebody like Shane Long, who Francesco believes is Ireland's best player.

“I think Shane Long is Ireland's best player. He's really similar to Pellè. Long is very physical. As a goalkeeper he'd be a player I'd worry about most. He's a really amazing striker. One on one it could be really difficult.”

Manuel Neuer certainly knows from experience what talents Shane Long possesses, and it seems as though Francesco agrees. It's interesting to see that between the opinions of Francesco and the Gazzetta dello Sport, two of Ireland's strikers are considered as their strongest players. If the average Irish supporter was asked the same question, I wonder if they'd agree.

Finally, I asked Francesco to tell me what player Ireland should watch out for when playing Italy, and he confirmed for me whom he already feels is the player that Martin O’Neill should be most worried about.

“I think this could be the tournament in which Verratti could explode, if he plays all the matches.”

So a qualified warning to consider. It seems as though the Italian team has plenty of options and not even Verratti will be guaranteed a starting spot. Italy is clearly a team in transition and won't be favourites in Group E. Yet, they can expect to qualify and go far in the tournament. Their game against Ireland could be crucial, given that it's the last game for both teams in the group, just like in 2012. Yet, Italy won't be underestimating Ireland, or at least that's what is being said. Italy may well need to win against a hard to beat Irish team, and that could indeed be Conte's decisive test.