Time For Italy To Prove Themselves

We are on the eve of Euro 2020 and Italy will kick off the tournament for the first time in my time as a fan. In the days leading up to the tournament, there has been a lot of positive attention on the team. Some are tipping them to be the dark horses of the tournament, some are tipping them to go all the way to the final and even winning it.

If you have followed the Italian national team as long as I have, you will know that this spells trouble. Whenever Italy has entered a tournament as one of the favourites, they have disappointed for example 1996, 2002 and 2004. The only exception would be 1994 where they went all the way to the final after a slow start. When no one has given them a chance, they have done well as we have seen in 2000, 2006, 2012 and to an extent, 2016. If I apply this logic, it doesn’t bode well for Italy in this tournament.

I have not watched Italy play since that unfateful World Cup qualifier playoff elimination by Sweden in 2017 because I have not had any access to international friendlies, UEFA Nations League, World Cup qualifier matches in Singapore. I have followed the results and watched the highlights of their matches and that was a throwback to my early days as an Italy fan in the early 90s. I have read a lot of positive reviews of how the team has played under Roberto Mancini and it is heartening. They are on a run of 27 unbeaten matches but in that run, they have not been tested against the best teams. The strongest team they have faced were the Netherlands who themselves are revitalising after missing out on two international competitions. I feel the real test lies now and it starts tomorrow.

This Italy lacks the obvious stars it used to have in the 1990s and 2000s. There are many players in this squad that you would describe as up and coming talents and promising players. They lack the big-game experience their predecessors had from playing in a strong and competitive league and regularly in European club competition. The performance of Italian clubs in Europe has also been less than impressive which adds to the lack of experience in this team. Only Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci, Marco Verratti and Jorginho have that experience in this team.

It’s for this reason and the superstition logic that I applied in paragraph 2 that I am coy and cautious of Italy’s chances of doing well in this tournament. I am leaving it to the players and the manager to prove themselves on the pitch where it matters the most. They owe it to all their fans worldwide – native Italians or not who have been mightily embarrassed and disappointed with their non-qualification for the 2018 World Cup.