Milan legend Albertini: Azzurri semi-final material, won't repeat Brazil mistake
Former Milan legend Demetrio Albertini sat down with us to talk about what he thinks of the Azzurri's exceedingly positive start to the competition.
“Italy undoubtedly played an excellent game: I was struck by how they were able to be a team with personality. The Azzurri have managed to emphasize their strengths, and you can clearly see the benefits of Antonio Conte's work, he' turned this group into a real team".
That said, Albertini claims that he isn't surprised by the Azzurri's dedication....
"Not a single player susprised me, I knew they'd all give 100%.
"I was surprised by the 2-0 scoreline, it's the kind of game that will strengthen the squad, and make it confident that it can play against anyone, and I'm sure that we won't repeat the mistake we made in Brazil, when we assumed we were already through”.
Albertini also had some advice, and still thinks that other teams are still ahead of them in the race for the European Championships.
“It's early to draw conclusions, there's a final every three days now, no more seven-day preparations. The fundamental thing in competitions like this is a team's physical state”.
"Everything seems perfect now, but it's early to change our pre-tournament predictions. The players were understimated earlier, I think that the Azzurri can make it to the semi-finals, but I still see other teams ahead of them, even those who started with some difficulty. Most of all Germany, but France and Spain too. Croatia have been the best so far: they played well against Turkey and have extraordinary players”.
@EdoDalmonte
