He has taken on the role of head of delegation in a big way and it is no coincidence that this morning it was Gigi Buffon who spoke at Casa Azzurri during the awards ceremony for the competition ‘The best goal of our national teams: score a goal too!’ organized by the Italian Embassy, in collaboration with the FIGC. “The victory against Albania – said the former number 1 of Juventus and the national team – is the result of the balance and awareness that this group has acquired. Since he arrived on the Italian bench, Spalletti has always asked for to hold on to the game, to force ourselves to play at every opportunity and I think the results have been seen.”
IMPROVEMENTS
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However, not everything went in the right direction: “The coach is very good at getting the most out of everyone using the stick and the carrot. We need to learn to be more cynical because with all the opportunities we had in the first half, we could have closed it out sooner the match and in the final we would not have risked conceding the 2-2, but I prefer to look at the glass half full and think that, after a shock start that cost us the 1-0, in a quarter of an hour we were capable. to overturn the result. In my opinion it was a strong signal.”
SHOULDERS LIKE LIPPI
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Buffon then made a parallel between the coach and Marcello Lippi, on the bench in 2006 when the national team became world champions in Germany. “There is a lot of similarity between them in how they manage the group. Sometimes he can be a friend, other times very demanding and calls everyone to pay maximum attention. His and our desire is to always achieve the best and we can achieve this if we move forward on the path taken”.
GIGIO AND SPAIN
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Having congratulated Donnarumma for the save which in the last minute of regulation time prevented Albania from drawing 2-2 (“It was very important and thanks to that intervention we put the victory on ice”), he spoke about the Thursday’s match against Spain: “In the 2016 European Championship we played a trick on the Spanish (we eliminated them in the round of 16, ed.), but that was a Spain at the end of the cycle or with important elements who had already left the national team. This one instead It’s a strong and tough team. However, we too are a growing national team that will be almost at the top in two years, but which is already reaching high performance levels.” Final with some words for the children: “When Italy is there it is the only moment in which we all support the same team and we all row on the same side. This is real magic… When I come to Germany I am moved if the children greet me and recognize me, because I think I have already passed as a player but instead the memories are passed down by the parents. It was nice to hug him last night on the pitch. The memories of 2006 in Dortmund came back to me.” .
