The final phase of the Under 21 European Championship is nine months away, but it is already time for the Under 21 National Team to rehearse.
Tomorrow at 5.30 pm at the "Adriatico-Giovanni Cornacchia" stadium in Pescara (live on Rai2), Paolo Nicolato's Azzurrini inaugurate the new season with a very prestigious test, against England.
A choice, that of facing high level opponents, made precisely with the aim of preparing the team for the event scheduled for June in Romania and Georgia.
"We will find a strong team, very well structured, of dribbling, strong, the one we wanted - the words of the coach at the press conference -. A match that I do not consider friendly, but a stage of approaching the European Championship: matches that allow us to understand who we can trust,
to understand which players we travel with.
In games like these, the half players make a mistake, especially the approach. "
Obviously, the bar will rise with respect to the group that led Italy to qualify for the European Championship: "The difficulty that I believe we will encounter is to evaluate ourselves on the non-possession phase - Nicolato's words -. in qualification we have always been with a passion for the game and little stressed in moments of great pressure. To take a further step we need to suffer a bit of pressure, but I hope that the team goes on the pitch to dominate and propose our game . I asked about the personality of those who want to have the ball and leave it little to others ".
The blue coach underlined how the group of 27 players (after Salvatore Esposito left the retreat to join the National A) has only seven boys class 2000 and another 13 in advance of two years, and that the boys are gaining experience in respective clubs: "The thing to do is to standardize the knowledge of individual boys according to our needs. The players who are playing continuously are confident, they improve quickly. And you grow with the game, which cannot be replaced with any type of training ".
The precedents with England, at the Under 21 level, smile at Italy: "But I am not very interested in the past, nor in the result. We do not want easy games to win: we must try to make good use of these opportunities and these opponents, who we are interested in being at a high level. We have important and fast growth margins and we must take advantage of every single opportunity because between now and the European Championship we will have only two Fifa dates, one of which is very far from the event. This time should not be wasted ".
The precedents with England, at the Under 21 level, smile at Italy: "But I am not very interested in the past, nor in the result. We do not want easy games to win: we must try to make good use of these opportunities and these opponents, who we are interested in being at a high level. We have important and fast growth margins and we must take advantage of every single opportunity because between now and the European Championship we will have only two Fifa dates, one of which is very far from the event. This time should not be wasted ".
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