Italian coach Roberto Mancini said Friday that he felt people had faith in him to rebuild the national team after their failure to qualify for this year’s World Cup and Wednesday’s 3-0 drubbing from South American champions Argentina in the Finalissima at Wembley. “I have always felt faith [in me]. I have never had problems, although, in soccer, when you win everything is perfect and when you lose you have everyone against you,” said Mancini, who only a year ago led the Azzurri to victory at Euro 2020. “But that is normal. Now we have to gradually rebuild.”
Mancini was speaking to the press ahead of Saturday’s opening Nations League match against Germany in Bologna. “Argentina is probably the team that put us most under the cosh over the last three years,” he said. “We will need time and patience. You can’t conjure up players out of nothing. We’ll have to suffer and start from tomorrow against one of the best national teams. We’ll have to defend well and attack better.”
