Italy coach Gian Piero Ventura believes that his side took a step towards becoming a great Italian team, as they ran out 2-0 winners over Albania.
Italy got one step closer towards qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, as they ran out 2-0 winners over Albania in fairly comfortable Group G encounter at the Renzo Barbera stadium in Palermo on Saturday.
Italy established a foothold in the match early on through a 12th minute penalty from Daniele De Rossi. Ciro Immobile then rounded off the win late on through his headed winner in the 72nd minute to continue their unbeaten start to the qualifying campaign.
In the aftermath of the match, Italy coach Gian Piero Ventura was visibly optimistic as he said that his side was well on its way to becoming a truly great Italian national team, claiming that Saturday’s win was one little step towards their long-term development.
” We are a fairly new team, and I consider that this evening we took another small step forward building something that will be exciting for Italy,” Ventura said in his post-match interview, as reported by Gazzetta dello Sport.
” Of course, tonight we did not play an extraordinarily exciting game. But I can tell you, tonight, here is growing a real group: although there are many new players and many young people, I see every reason to do something nice for the future.
” Our work started from here. Those who did not play today will play tomorrow or the next day. There are a lot of young players [in the squad] who will gain experience and we have got everything to build a strong future for the national team.”
Indeed, Ventura has chosen to call up several impressive youngsters to the national setup, with the likes of Lorenzo Insigne, Andrea Belotti, Davide Zappacosta, Roberto Gagliardini and Gianluigi Donnarumma among others making up for an exciting set of prospects emerging out of the country.
These players are being supported by experienced stalwarts like Gianluigi Buffon, De Rossi, Leonardo Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli to ensure a successful changing of guard to the future generations in the coming years, and the future of Italian football seems to be bright indeed.
As for the match, the result sees Italy continue their unbeaten start to the World Cup qualifying campaign, level on points with Spain who have a far superior goal difference. A potential top of the table clash is, thus, being set up as we enter the second half of the qualifiers in Europe.
