Davide Frattesi, an Italian defender, was pleased after Italy’s 0-0 draw with Ukraine on Monday. He said that the European winners will try to “do something fantastic” in Germany next year.
The victory means that Italy will not miss out on another embarrassing World Cup. Before their Euro 2020 win, they failed to qualify for both the 2018 and 2022 tournaments.
Both teams still need 14 points to finish second in Group C, 14 points behind England. However, Italy has the better record against them, having won 2-1 in Milan in September.
“We knew it would be really hard if we couldn’t break the stalemate in the first hour.” It got rougher after that because of Ukraine, Frattesi told RAI Sport.
“We were under a lot of stress, but we did well overall.” What mattered was that we met the requirements…
“It was hard, but we had to get through it.” We’re going to try to do something great again.”
The end score didn’t reflect how the game really went; Italy’s high-octane attack and Ukraine’s threat to counterattack gave both teams many chances to score.
Even though Italy’s Bryan Cristante looked like he hit Mykhailo Mudryk’s foot in extra time, Ukraine’s late penalty request was turned down.
Serhiy Rebrov, the coach of Ukraine, told the press after the game, “From my point of view, that was a penalty, but again, I wasn’t there, and it’s just my emotions.”
Italy went to Leverkusen knowing that they could move on if they didn’t lose, while Ukraine knew that they needed to win in order to move on.
Three months have passed since Roberto Mancini unexpectedly quit as Italy coach to take over as coach of the Saudi Arabia national team.
“Ukraine showed they are a very good team and gave us a lot of trouble,” Spalletti said. Last season, Spalletti led Napoli to their first Serie A title since 1990.
The event draw will happen on December 2 in Hamburg, and Italy will be in either pot 3 or pot 4.
The coach also said that his team would “have a moment to pat ourselves on the back” before turning their attention to the finals in Germany, where they won the World Cup in 2006.
“The level is going to go up now.” “Now the fun starts.”
Nicolo Zaniolo, a midfielder for Italy, said that his team’s wild qualification campaign, which included two losses to England and a tie with North Macedonia, would not make them less determined to defend their title.
“We were driven to do the right thing.” Italy needs to go to the Euros not just to play, but to defend their title.
Because of the current war with Russia, Ukraine had to play the game in Germany. They can still qualify, but they will have to make it through the play-offs in March 2024.
Mudryk played well on the left wing for Ukraine and created a number of half-chances early on, but his team couldn’t finish them off.
After 30 minutes, Italy’s control of the ball started to show. Federico Chiesa sent a smooth pass across the goal that Davide Frattesi couldn’t reach.
Early in the second half, Italy kept attacking, but as the game went on, they sat back because they were getting more nervous. This gave Ukraine more space up front.
There was always a threat from Mudryk, and Cristante seemed to have brought him down in the box, but the judge ignored his team’s cries for a penalty kick.