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Insigne in spotlight as Italy look to bury World Cup demons in San Siro
MILAN, Nov 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Lorenzo Insigne will be in the spotlight
as Italy return to the San Siro for Saturday’s Nations League clash against
the European champions Portugal 12 months after their dramatic failure to
qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time in 60 years.
Relegated to the bench by former coach Gian Piero Ventura for the entire
second leg of the play-off lost to Sweden, the Napoli winger did not play a
direct role in Italy’s humiliating exit.
A year on and the versatile 27-year-old has become an integral part of the
new Italy side being built by coach Roberto Mancini, which is fighting for a
place in the Nation’s League semi-finals.
Insigne has started five of the seven games Mancini has overseen — two
wins against Saudi Arabia and Poland and three draws.
“It hurts to think about it. More than the bench that evening, it hurts me
to think that didn’t qualify,” said Insigne.
But despite his goal-scoring form with Napoli — seven in 12 league games
this season — Insigne has struggled to deliver on the same scale for the
national team.
Saturday’s match, to be played on front of a capacity crowd of 70,000 at
the San Siro, will be Insigne’s 30th, but he has scored just four goals in
six years and is still waiting for a first under Mancini.
“In the national team we meet once a month so it is more difficult (to
replicate club form),” he explained.
“I think it’s normal to do better for your club, in Naples we have been the
same team for the past three years, even though was have changed coach.”
His seven goals this season are also the result of being moved closer to
the strikers by Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti.
“It’s been my best season since I started playing for Napoli.
“Ancelotti and Mancini are alike, they have the same management style, they
think the same way, because of this I feel good here.
“I hope to give the national side what I give at home in Naples.”
– Chiellini century –
Italy are two points behind Portugal in Group 3 having played a game more
than Fernando Santos’ side.
Portugal, without Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo, beat Italy 1-0 in Lisbon
two months ago, and need just a point to make the finals.
Italy meanwhile need to beat Portugal on Friday and then hope Poland do
them a favour on Tuesday in their final game.
“First place in the group is difficult, but it is not impossible,” said
Insigne.
“We have grown a lot in the last two games, but we need to be smarter in
front of goal.”
Mancini got his first competitive win with a last-gasp 1-0 win over Poland
a month ago.
It was the first victory for the four-time world champions since a 1-0
victory over Albania in World Cup qualifiers over a year ago, and the best
Azzurri performance for a long time.
“We lost in Portugal by playing a very young team, but now we have the
chance to beat them at San Siro, then we’ll see what happens in Portugal-
Poland,” said Mancini.
“I want to see a team that attacks above all for the San Siro crowd, a
stadium that fills up every time Italy arrives.”
The game will also be the 100th cap for veteran captain Giorgio Chiellini,
who had considered retiring after the World Cup exit.
“The World Cup is an eternal regret. But when the coach of the national
side calls you have a moral obligation to answer,” said Chiellini.
After the Portugal game, Italy play a friendly against the United States in
Belgium.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0834 hrs