He was sitting on the most precarious bench of the last Serie A: the post-Spalletti Napoli of the volcanic De Laurentiis. Before, after and while there was and…
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Gianluca Segarelli, sensations?
“We’re all excited because it’s not every day you get to play in a European Championship and for many, including myself, it’s perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
You qualified in a tough group, with Cr7’s Portugal and Leao and Iceland. How is the team doing now?
«Everything is going smoothly. The work is aimed at the physical condition of the boys because some have played many matches and others few or come from injuries.”
Real goal?
“Make a good impression. Just getting through the group would mean a lot, of the 24 finalists we are 21st in the ranking and, to be honest, many would have competed to meet us. We have a difficult group where Belgium and Ukraine are superior on paper but, as always, the final say belongs to the pitch.”
In your team you have people like Lobotka and Škriniar but who are your young players on the rise?
«Suslov had a good season at Verona and has great margins. Then, Leo Sauer: offensive winger in 2005. He plays for Feyenoord, he is one of our best young players.”
Among the players you have seen up close in this intense season, who surprised you the most?
«Two, both in Barcelona, faced Napoli in the Champions League: Pau Cubarsi and Lamine Yamal, at 17 years old they played an eighth as if they were veterans. Impressive for quality and personality.”
How does Slovakia play?
«We tried to bring proactive and fast football. We are trying to revive the entire movement by renewing it because people like Kuckha and Pekarik, unfortunately, are not eternal. The European Championship is a great result, when we arrived in the Nations League they had lost twice to Kazakhstan and were in crisis. The Slovakian championship is not of a very high level, you have to find small players and glimpse their skills and quality.”
What is his task?
«I monitor the boys in all their matches of the season to understand if they are in good condition, if they are growing or are in difficulty in view of the call-up. I also study every single opposing player in order to know each one’s strengths and weaknesses.”
And if it happens to challenge Italy?
«It would be a nightmare. Jokes aside, it would be fascinating: on the one hand I would be happy because it would mean that we would both have passed the group, on the other I would prefer not to. Both because I would necessarily have to support my homeland and because we would be facing a very strong team.”
You have lived in Pesaro for over 25 years. Did you have the opportunity to take a few days off between Naples and the European Championship?
«Only three days. The first thing I did was hug my wife and my two daughters, I saw them three times in three and a half months and I missed them a lot. Then, a pizza with friends from Piazzale 1° Maggio. I know they will cheer for me.”
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