Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini said
Wednesday the Azzurri must not be afraid of North Macedonia in
their World Cup qualifying play-off semi-final in Palermo on
Thursday.
"We mustn't be afraid, we must play with serenity and a touch of
arrogance," the Juve defender told a pre-match press conference.
"The failure to qualify (for the World Cup) four years ago is
not weighing us down, and experience can help: I want to end my
Azzurri career on a high, with the World Cup".
Chiellini said he had recovered from injury and ow it was a
question of "managing myself between the first and the second
match," referring in the latter case to a hoped-for play-off
final against either Portugal or Turkey.
Coach Roberto Mancini said "my Italy knows what it has to do".
He said there hadn't been much time to prepare the match against
the North Macedonians and so "it will be largely up to the lads
who won the Europeans last year".
Asked about the disappointment of four years ago, when Italy
lost a qualifying play-off to Sweden and failed to qualify for
the World Cup for the first time since 1958, Mancini said
"there's no point going back over it, we just have to be
focused...It's a team that knows how to play football and has to
be focused on what it has to do on the field"
If Italy get past North Macedonia, they then face the winner of
the match between Portugal and Turkey on March 29 in Porto or
Konya in the play-off final.
After coming second to Switzerland in their qualifying group,
the European champions ha to go through the play-offs to reach
Qatar 2022.
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