Ahead of Italy’s friendly against Austria tomorrow evening, the Azzurri boss Roberto Mancini previewed the fixture in the press.
Earlier this week, Mancini’s men cruised past Albania in a convincing 3-1 brace where full-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo found the equalizer after trailing by a goal in the opening 16 minutes and Vincenzo Grifo bagged a brace to double his team’s advantage.
With Italy missing out on the 2022 World Cup, Mancini is undergoing a rebuild, providing younger players with minutes under the National team in order to revolutionize his squad ahead of the upcoming Euros in 2024.
While speaking to the media, as relayed by Tuttomercatoweb, Mancini provided his insight on what he thinks will be a lot of the youngsters’ biggest test thus far:
Is the match against Austria part of Italy’s growth path?
“Yes, definitely. Especially for the younger players: it will be a very tough match, because we will face a very aggressive team”.
Should we expect anything new tomorrow?
“Probably we will re-propose the same module, to test it in a slightly more difficult game”.
Are you satisfied with this gathering?
“Let’s see how tomorrow goes, but yes. We’ve had good signals from the youngsters, this means they can have a great future in the national team, even if they have to commit themselves and play more: only by playing can you acquire the right mentality”.
