Italy coach Mancini declares he's staying

Posted Tuesday, March 29, 2022 by Tribalfootball.com

Italy coach Roberto Mancini says he won't be resigning after their World Cup failure.

The Azzurri missed qualification for Qatar 2022 after defeat to North Macedonia last week in their playoff.

Ahead of their friendly against Turkey, former Inter Milan coach Mancini said: "We've spoken these days. I think we have the same ideas on everything. We'll talk again in the next few days. Now, let's focus on the game, then we'll see what we must improve in the future. It's all here.

"We need to start again and think about different situations. We have difficult games ahead. We'll see.

"Despite the huge disappointment, I am happy to see that the job we've done in the last four years has been appreciated. The victory at the Euros was not the only good thing we did. The lads deserve the praise for what we've done. I can say that these guys are special. The group is exceptional," he continued.

"We should have won the qualification group with at least two points more than Switzerland. We should have won the game in Basel 3-0. Since September, we haven't been lucky, and I can't blame my players because we've always played good football. We were not clinical. We made mistakes, we wasted many chances.

"I think you all remember the game in Basel. We should have scored two goals, at least. We'll look at our errors. Now it's useless to talk. We don't want to find excuses."