Mancini praises his team’s response despite fatigue

“We were tired, but the reaction was fantastic,” Roberto Mancini said after his team’s victory over Turkey. In Bologna, they won 3-1 in a hard-fought match, with the coach having made as many as nine changes to his starting line-up.

Mancini acknowledged that the rotations may have affected the team’s fluency. “We were all tired, but we managed to come back after a slow start. I knew we would lose a little fluency with so many changes, but in the end we still did well,” he said.

The coach also explained why he substituted Scamacca and Ruggeri in the second half. Both had been shown yellow cards; Mancini said he felt the referee wanted to punish them again, so he decided to take them off.

Currently second in their group, a position that would send them through to the Nations League quarter-finals, the team must keep this run going. Mancini pointed to the November fixture in Belgium: “We have to keep going like this and be ready to play for everything there. We improved a difficult situation, but it is still too early to draw conclusions.”

Finally, asked who he missed most from his first spell as coach, Mancini replied: “Gianluca Vialli.”