Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso has called for composure ahead of Italy\u2019s World Cup playoff \u200csemi-final against Northern Ireland on Thursday, urging his players to block out the trauma of past failures.<\/p>\n
With the spectre of failed 2018 and 2022 qualification campaigns looming over the squad, Gattuso knows his players must overcome the mental weakness that has plagued Italy’s World Cup ambitions.<\/p>\n
Seeking to avoid a third consecutive qualification failure, the Italians have managed only one victory at a World \u2060Cup, a 2-1 group-stage win over England 12 years ago, since lifting the trophy in 2006 for the fourth time.<\/p>\n
“We must be able to make the players feel lighter,” Gattuso told reporters at Italy\u2019s Coverciano training base on Monday. “Italy didn\u2019t play in the last two World Cups… but there is no need to suffocate them. These are players who have won the Euros and played in Champions League finals. They are accustomed to these games.”<\/p>\n
“There are no excuses; we must only think about Thursday\u2019s game,” Gattuso said. “We must have the right mentality and serenity. We respect the opponents… but we must \u200cbe clear-headed \u2060and smell the danger.”<\/p>\n
Should they get past Northern Ireland they would face a final against Wales or Bosnia & Herzegovina on March 31 to qualify for the showpiece tournament in North America.<\/p>\n
Gattuso confirmed that Liverpool forward Federico Chiesa had left the camp.<\/p>\n
“He had a few physical problems, and we decided it was useless for him to \u2060stay here,” Gattuso said. “When I heard that he had problems and doubts, I had to make a decision. He didn\u2019t feel up for it, so he decided to return home. When one wants to return home, it\u2019s right \u2060to let him do it.”<\/p>\n
Gattuso revealed he personally chose the 23,000-seat Stadio di Bergamo over the San Siro for the clash, admitting he feared the “caustic” atmosphere of a larger stadium if the team \u2060struggled early.<\/p>\n
“At a 60,000-seat stadium like San Siro, they might start booing after a few wrong passes,” Gattuso explained. “I want to create a real cauldron-like atmosphere. Thursday\u2019s game is the only target. All the rest is the past.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso has called for composure ahead of Italy\u2019s World Cup playoff \u200csemi-final against Northern Ireland on Thursday, urging his players to block out the trauma of past failures. With the spectre of failed 2018 and 2022 qualification campaigns looming over the squad, Gattuso knows his players must overcome the mental weakness that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2733,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2728\/revisions\/2733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}