Marco Verratti believes if Italy had played with their current approach, they would’ve “without doubt” qualified for the 2018 World Cup.
The Nazionale dominated Greece 3-0 in Athens to maintain their perfect start to Euro 2020 qualifying, winning all three by scoring 11 goals and conceding none.
“It was a good performance, as we defended well, kept possession and I think it was a great victory,” the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder told Tuttomercatoweb.
Marco Verratti believes if Italy had played with their current approach, they would’ve “without doubt” qualified for the 2018 World Cup.
The Nazionale dominated Greece 3-0 in Athens to maintain their perfect start to Euro 2020 qualifying, winning all three by scoring 11 goals and conceding none.
“It was a good performance, as we defended well, kept possession and I think it was a great victory,” the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder told Tuttomercatoweb.
Giampiero Ventura famously struggled to use Jorginho and Verratti together, but Roberto Mancini has made them the core of this Italy side.
“I get along well with Jorginho and I think the Coach changed the philosophy of the side. Keeping the ball helps you to control the tempo and allow the opposition very few scoring opportunities.
“We must continue like this and bring back the enthusiasm to the fans after letting them down lately.”
The mind inevitably goes back to the 2018 World Cup play-off against Sweden, lost 1-0 on aggregate in November 2017. Just 19 months later, would this current Italy side have won that tie?
“I think there’s no doubt we would,” replied Verratti. “I don’t like to talk about the past, but it’s clear that we play better football now, we have many talented players and have the make the most of them.”
The final international of the season is on Tuesday evening against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Turin.
“I don’t think it’s a match point yet, but it is certainly a very important game for the standings. If we were to win, it’d give us a big advantage at the top of the group.”