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‘We need to go even faster’: Mancini fires up Italy before Spain rematch | Nicky Bandini

06-Oct-2021 07:00:19 | The Guardian

The Azzurri manager has the chance to add the Nations League title to their thrilling Euro 2020 success

Italy have got used to winning. There was incredulity back in 2018 when Roberto Mancini took over as manager of the Azzurri and announced his ambition to lift the European Championship and then the World Cup. They had just failed to qualify for the latter competition for the first time in 60 years. As La Gazzetta dello Sport’s leader writer Luigi Garlando recalled this week: “We hid our chuckles with bursts of coughing.”

Yet Mancini achieved that first objective, steering his team past Belgium, Spain and finally the hosts, England, to win Euro 2020. It was the beginning of an unprecedented sporting summer. Italians claimed 40 medals at the Olympics, including 10 golds. They followed up with 69 medals at the Paralympics, then victory in the men’s and women’s European Volleyball Championships.