On paper, this is perhaps the most beautiful poster of these quarter-finals of Euro 2021. At the Allianz Arena in Munich, Belgium faces, Friday July 2, an Italy which has already won the popularity match. To hell with the clichés, this Nazionale offers ambitious and attacking football. Main architect of this small cultural revolution in the land of catenaccio – where defense is an art – the coach, Roberto Mancini, will rely on Manuel Locatelli, revelation of the first round, and striker Domenico Berardi.
What do these two men have in common (to which must be added the center forward replacing Giacomo Raspadori)? The AC Milan midfielder and the Calabrian both play in Sassuolo. In recent years, this club in the suburbs of Modena, in Emilia-Romagna, has changed the lines of Italian football rooted in the past, which was in dire need of a polish.
Historically, Juventus Turin are the most represented team within the national team when each list is announced. Without going so far as to count eight or nine players bianconeri in its ranks or even on the lawn, as was the case during the Italy-Argentina match at the World 78, Italy still has a base of players from the training dear to the Agnelli family.
For this Euro 2021, the situation has changed somewhat: the “Old Lady” has only one player more than Paris-Saint-Germain, Naples or even Sassuolo. The main reason ? The change in philosophy driven by Roberto Mancini since taking office in May 2018. ” Before, Italy had a game adapted to the opponent with an assumed culture of “Contropiede” [« contre-pied »], decrypts journalist Marco Bellinazzo. Today, the model is different, there is a more positive approach to football which makes the national team a proactive team in the game. “
“Give young people time to play”
The author of the book The fine del calcio italiano (“The end of Italian football”, not translated in France), released the same year as the enthronement of Mancini at the head of the selection, insists: if the Nazionale and Mancini have decided to break with traditions and display an offensive and seductive face, it is also because the former thinking head of Inter Milan and Manchester City watched what was happening before his eyes, in Serie A. And in particular on the side of Sassuolo.
” The peculiarity of this change in philosophy is that it takes root above all within provincial clubs and not in the big historical clubs, resumes the journalist. There is a whole series of coaches in these clubs, like Roberto De Zerbi in Sassuolo or Gian Piero Gasperini at Atalanta, who have peddled the principles of the game that could be summed up as developing a offensive play, spectacular, while including at the heart of the project of young players. “
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