Mancini, who has written about the history of Italian football in Vilnius, admitted: “Tough victory” | sports

Italy, who had the opportunity, beat the Lithuanian team 2: 0 and was one step closer to the most important soccer tournament on the planet to be held in Qatar next year.

R. Mancini’s connection to the World Championship is specific. The forward, who had a solid professional club career, was inducted into the Squadra Azzurra in the 1990s but did not play a minute in the bronze championship hosts of the planet. Four years later, the Italians only lost in the final, but Mancini’s path to the championship was blocked by disagreements with then-team coach Arrigo Sacchi when he announced that he would select other forwards.

Now 56-year-old R. Mancini is on the hunt for the world grail of football as a coach and, for now at least, with confidence.

Playing with the teams of the second hundred of the FIFA world rankings, the Italians had the last seven duels and did so by at least three goals. They also won on Wednesday night in Vilnius, but ours avoided the crushing finish.

“We have been expecting such a difficult match. The two zeros on the scoreboard after the first half did not surprise me. We knew it was going to be difficult and I must say that this match was difficult for us. In the first half, Lithuania defended very well. well, so it was not easy to attack. We really didn’t have many situations. But it was not necessary to expect an easy ride, because there are no easy games at this level, “said R. Mancini after the game.

The LFF coach was very happy with the way the game was developing, but still wanted to make a change to the line-up.

“It was difficult. Playing synthetic fabrics is never easy, and after the rain and yesterday’s training I was still wet and slippery. As a result, the ball was different, yesterday’s passes were faster, everything was much slower on game day and the pace of the game changed dramatically, “said the strategist.

Summing up the duel, the strategist did not hide the fact that the two halves were completely different. “The first half was slow in every way. After the break we played much better and faster. As a result, we also had many opportunities. We were able to score much more, but we failed,” said the coach.

After winning in Vilnius, R. Mancini repeated the achievement of another famous Italian strategist, Marcelo Lippi. The team of a specialist from the province of Ancona has not lost 25 games in a row. Lippi ended his impressive series with a win in the 2006 World Cup final in Germany and resigned. Mancini is just beginning his journey to the top of planetary soccer.

And while it is pointless to look for parallels between these two series from different eras, Italian journalists did not miss the opportunity to move their fingers along historical lines before the match in Vilnius.

“I have a lot of respect for Marcelo and I appreciate what he did to our team, but here’s another story. We are still forming a team and taking the first steps. On the other hand, it is good to hear that you are compared to a coach who won a world championship, maybe that means that we are moving in the right direction, ”Mancini said modestly.

The longest undefeated series for the Italian national team was recorded in 1935-1939. At that time, the Squadra Azzurra was not defeated for 30 consecutive matches and during this period they lost the 1938 world champion title.

Leading the team to that triumph, Vittorio Pozzo is the only coach in soccer history to have won two world championships.

Mancini, 56, is still a long way from the legendary winner’s achievements, but for one reason Italians can rest easy: they have a team again, which is a great force and does not get stuck behind every penny of football. European.

And the numbers really speak volumes. The strategist who took over Gian Piero Ventura’s team in May 2018 is by far the most successful coach of the Italian team in history. Mancini was the 30th match in Vilnius and during this time he won 21 victories, played seven times in the tie and landed only for France (1: 3) and Portugal (0: 1).

Mancini won 70 percent. of the entire duel with the Italian national team and surpasses V. Pozzo (66%) and A.Sacchi (64%) who had the best statistics so far.

On Wednesday night, Lithuania was also surprised by the fact that it failed only twice, although on average R. The men scored 2.26 goals during the match and played alone more effectively than the current national team in its entire history in the Augusto Rangone of the interwar period (1925-1928, middle 2, 83) and teams V. Pozzo (2.45).

Therefore, the main director of Squadra Azzurra does not fall into euphoria and understands that the results of his work will not be judged by the performance of the team in Vilnius, but by how it will look at this year’s Euro and Qatar.

A match like the one Squadra Azzurra showed on Wednesday won’t be enough.