Juventus captain Manuel Locatelli admitted Italy were fragile in their World Cup qualifier against Norway, as they suffered another embarrassing defeat at the hands of Erling Haaland and company.
Heading to the final group-stage round, the Azzurri knew fully well that only a miracle would allow them to clinch the top spot and book an automatic place in the tournament. After all, they were three points behind the Scandinavians, who also had a 3-0 advantage in the double header.
Nevertheless, the San Siro crowd was at least hoping for a pride-restoring victory that could serve as a morale-booster ahead of the play-offs in March.
Locatelli urges Italy to improve after Norway beatdown
The Italians started on the right foot, taking an early lead through Francesco Pio Esposito. However, a second-half onslaught from the Norwegians turned the result upside-down and saw them prevail by four goals to one, much to the dismay of the home supporters in the stands.
Locatelli was selected as the holding midfielder in Gennaro Gattuso’s hybrid 3-5-2 formation and lasted 78 minutes. The Juventus skipper left the pitch between Norway’s second and third goals (both scored by Haaland).
After the contest, the 27-year-old highlighted the team’s main weakness, while urging his compatriots to regroup and give their all in the playoffs.
“Qualification was seriously compromised in Oslo, but today we had the potential to do better,” said Locatelli in his post-match interview via IlBianconero. “We tried to score the second goal, but then we were fragile, and that must not happen again.”
“We need to understand where we went wrong, especially in the moments when we needed to be more united. Now we’re waiting for the draw and want to arrive in March with renewed energy.”
“Norway’s level was high, but we definitely needed to do better. We know how to take responsibility; we’ll have to do better in March. This shouldn’t be our level. We can and must do better .”
Should Manuel Locatelli change his role?
For his part, Locatelli played a solid match from a defensive perspective but was once again limited in possession, failing to provide the required flair in the build-up
Like Juventus, Italy should consider finding a more attacking-minded Regista, and perhaps entrust the former Sassuolo star with a box-to-box role, where his hard-working displays would be better rewarded.
2 Comments
Tonali was sorely missed. Also right before it all came undone after 1-1. You could see the Italian players were all pretty much spent. I don’t know what their conditioning was like or that they had played too much previously. But I think that played a major factor in the unraveling. Also I think they were putting too much pressure on themselves. Winning or losing this match was irrelevant. We should have played for a solid game draw or narrow win or loss, because we aren’t going to score 10 goals to top them in goal difference going into the match. Have a solid game to keep morale high going into the playoffs. Maybe this might light a fire under them. Time will tell. Again haaland shows what Italy has been missing for a few decades now. Those tottis, vieris, cannavarros, pirlos, del pieros. We miss the generational players. We haven’t had one in over 15 years by my opinion.
I agree about the conditioning. Italy were only able to keep the pressure for the first 20 to 25 minutes and then they were spent. Once Norway decided to play some football Italy was dead meat. We see this with the Italian teams also as they look so poorly conditioned when they play in Europe.
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