Bosnia-Italy, World Cup playoffs: Gattuso’s choices

We are history, with the four World Cups, all the epic matches that take place in these hours between our memories and a blue that was scary. But history changes all the time, even great empires have collapsed one day. Now, now, immediately, we must reverse the downward trend, here in the not even impossible cold and mud of Zenica, against Bosnia. Not Germany or England. “You are in a bad situation if you are afraid of Wales and prefer us,” Dzeko said wisely, exposing all the hypocrisies. There is no third way: we do Italy and go to the World Cup, or we surrender to the imperfection of the number three, third apocalypse in a row, which is also loneliness. We would be the only ones to stay at home among the champions and among those in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings (not for long). Everyone with Gattuso and the Azzurri then. To take America from us.

Attention behind

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The themes of the day before Northern Ireland return. We are stronger, but there is nothing easy, taken for granted, anymore, not for us at least. Spain and France have another dimension, we are forced to resort to the art of making do. As Gattuso says, we think about beauty later. Again a working-class Italy like the coach, and it’s a good thing, when we form a group we’re there. Bosnia has nothing to lose, Italy everything. If for us it is the game of the last twenty years, for them it is the game of life. They are superior to the Northern Irish, more team-based, more compact and technical. They know how to dirty up moments and restart quickly, the thing that worries us the most: the two or three times that O’Neill’s green team verticalized in Bergamo, in fact, our defense never gave the impression of rejecting them without fear. On the contrary, he trembled a little, Cannavaro, where are you?, and not only due to the understandable emotion of an appointment not to be missed.

Kean-Retegui

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Gattuso confirmed the Bergamo team, what coaches do after a success. In reality only one seemed to be in question and it wasn’t Locatelli. The Juventus player, criticized for lowering himself on Bastoni, actually avoided worse trouble. Tonight will certainly be worse, with the descents from the flanks and Demirovic’s depth. And then one of the two midfielders of the Bosnian 4-4-2 is always under very high pressure on the playmaker, so Loca will be more of a blocker than a defender. The doubt was Retegui-Esposito: the sense of gratitude for those who, up until Bergamo, have never betrayed against the new one that is advancing and deserves. Play Retegui. It may be a risk to give time to Bosnia, but perhaps it is worth taking so as not to lose the Italian-Argentine who is also risking his image on the transfer market. Kean is untouchable and knows how to act alone, let’s hope that the maneuver speeds up in Politano, Barella and Dimarco, without forgetting that the Bosnians press and restart.

More spaces for us

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Against Wales they showed two faces, an extremely defensive one, enhanced by an impeccable Muharemovic in the centre, a restarting one with Dedic’s runs to the right, the dribbling sprints of Alajbegovic, unsure from the 1st minute, and the Demirovic-Dzeko pairing: Edin here is a living legend, no longer very mobile, but always a danger in the area, and plays a deadly role in the center for his Stuttgart teammate who never stops but luckily is seemed imprecise. The Bosnians are very foul players, if they are overcome they don’t think twice about hitting. They got more tired against Wales. This match is won with people who get past the man and get fouled, we lose if we aren’t careful about long, high passes and crosses cut into the area. Then they close in on defense, not very armored if caught at speed, with a low average possession (48%), but not non-existent like that of the Northern Irish (35%). Maybe better: there will be more spaces. Perhaps.

Zenica or San Siro

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Having made the mistake of the video that uploaded the Bosnians, but Gattuso was splendidly gallant with Bosnia yesterday, let’s not make a second mistake by overestimating a stadium with 9 thousand fans, we who play at San Siro and at the Olimpico. Afraid of what? The mud won’t help but – let’s look at each other – are we much more technical than the Bosnians? Once, maybe. And then all this impregnable fortress cannot be seen. In the last three years Bosnia has won in Zenica five times (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Cyprus, San Marino, Romania) and lost to Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Ukraine, Germany, Hungary and Austria, plus a draw with the Netherlands. If we lose, it will be our fault, not the environment or the referee (barring disasters that Turpin’s name guarantee should avert). But we can’t afford it. Go Italy. Take America. Take the world.