Thus the coach after the victory over Israel which gave us the arithmetic possibility of qualifying for the World Cup through the play-offs: “A month ago they made us dance by taking us for a walk, happy not to have conceded a goal”
The glass is half full. Because if it is true that Norway has now almost definitively secured the pass to go directly to the World Cup (almost impossible to recover the goal difference with Haaland and his teammates), Gattuso’s Italy does its thing, beats Israel with a clear 3-0 and arithmetically ensures the possibility of playing through the playoffs for a place for the USA, Mexico and Canada 2026. “We did well, we managed the match a month ago we all remember – underlines coach Gattuso shortly after the final whistle -. They made us dance by taking us for a walk. We must congratulate the boys, including Gigio who made good saves. Personally I’m satisfied, I saw a great spirit and I’m happy not to have conceded a goal. The game we had to play was played, even though today we had everything to lose… Very, very good.”
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Under Gattuso’s management, 16 goals scored and 4 victories in as many games with Rino as coach: “But we have to know how to suffer, few teams in the world can manage. And when we have the ball the quality is there, but we need to find consistency and work on every centimeter. Playoffs? We don’t rest, let’s hope that God sends us a good one and that we don’t lose players. We’ll play two serious games and we’ll try to form that compact nucleus that manages to stay well inside and out from the field”.