Alessandro Buongiorno awaits his debut at the European Championship, but in the meantime he spoke to Uefa.com to remember his first match with the national team, exactly one year ago, on 18 June 2023 against the Netherlands in the final for the third place of the Nations League. “Every time I wear the national team shirt – confided the Torino defender – it is a unique emotion because we represent millions of Italians and therefore we feel the responsibility to do well, to give our all to be able to win matches and play well The day of my debut was special: I wasn’t initially in the squad for the final phase of the Nations League and I arrived the day before the match against Spain (to replace the injured Bastoni, ed.). That’s why I didn’t expect to play against the Netherlands. It was a beautiful moment. The day before I was a bit incredulous, but then I faced it with absolute calm and it went well.”
Replacement
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Here we are at the generational change that Spalletti’s new Italy is facing after the farewell of defenders Chiellini and Bonucci. “We have to be ready. When we went to America we had the opportunity to talk to Chiellini, to discuss things and he gave us some important advice. For our part, we have to follow them and follow the coach’s advice to always do the best we can. I graduated as Chiellini? Yes and graduating is very important for a footballer. Study, culture opens your mind, it allows you to think better on the pitch, to understand what the coach asks of you It’s not easy because writing down books in the evening when you come back from training isn’t very easy. But you have to do it and it’s a very important thing.”
GAME FROM BELOW
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Buongiorno then confessed that he was in favor of a bottom-up approach: “Now all the players must know how to do a bit of everything. The defender, in addition to defending his own goal, must also know how to set up the game, know how to play the ball. We work a lot on this. Everything to allow the team to start, start the action and play in the best possible way. The victory over Albania? The goal immediately after a few seconds was a blow to the heart, but the team immediately recovered and we reacted. We managed to get the equalizer straight away and take the lead quite quickly. We played well and managed to keep the ball as the coach asked us. There are moments when you have to hold on a little more possession, others in which you have to sting, hurt the opponent. We did well in choosing these moments, in the intensity and desire that everyone put in to recover the match, to go and press them.”
SPAIN
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Then the comment on Spain, the opponent on Thursday in Gelsenkirchen: “It will be a tough match in which we will have to be good at keeping possession when they press us and then when they have the ball, we will have to try to contain the wingers, avoiding one-on-one situations open field. But always trying to play our game… Yamal? We will have to limit it as much as possible because it can hurt, but I think we can do it against Spain in recent years They have this game that has evolved a lot. We hope to do well, to impose our game, to keep possession, to play well and to score as much as possible.” Final on the disappointment of failing to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar: “Having to qualify for USA 2026 is a positive pressure. A positive responsibility that pushes us to give our best, beyond our limits, to spit blood on every occasion, in every moment of the match, but also off the pitch with the right nutrition and everything you need to get to the matches at the top.”
