""What do you mean this wasn't the best Italy performance? I saw the lads dominating the match, Moldova never had a shot on target. If you were expecting an 11-1 like Moldova had against Norway, then that is not my problem. There are no easy matches. I feel bad about what I heard from the crowd today, chants telling us to get to work. This is when we must remain united, the team is doing what they need to do. Coming away from home and hearing 500-odd fans insulting the players, I do not accept that.""
""It wasn't easy, but this is modern football. We also knew that Norway had won, so it was a bit of a strange atmosphere. There were a lot of changes too and that made it rather difficult to concentrate fully, but we got the three points and that""
Italy defeated Moldova 2-0 with late goals from Gianluca Mancini and Francesco Pio Esposito in their penultimate World Cup qualifying match. Italy sit second in Group I and must beat Norway by nine goals in the final match to secure automatic qualification for the 2026 World Cup. Gennaro Gattuso became the third coach in Italian history to win each of his first five matches, after Edmondo Fabbri and Azeglio Vicini. Gattuso expressed disappointment at negative chants from travelling fans during the goalless phase. Sandro Tonali described a strange atmosphere and noted lineup changes affected concentration.
Read at Soccer News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]