Mancini, debut to forget: Saudi Arabia loses to Costa Rica

If five years ago Roberto Mancini made his debut with a smile on the bench of the Italian national team by beating Saudi Arabia 2-1, this time it is a debut to forget for the former Italian coach. In an already tense atmosphere in itself, with a semi-deserted St James’ Park due to the controversy of the English fans, Costa Rica won the friendly match 3-1. A success that the Costa Ricans, coached by former Inter player Nelson Vivas, achieved thanks to greater cynicism in front of goal. Mancini’s team dominates ball possession, demonstrating the new identity given by the coach, but at the same time they fail in the last pass, as well as leaking in defence. Costa Rica, for its part, is much more physical and lethal on dead balls. He demonstrates it in the first two goals, which arrived in just over half an hour, first in the 12th minute with Calvo, then in the 32nd minute with Ugalde. In the midst of a lot of smoke and little roast from Saudi Arabia, which grinds out the game without doing any harm.

the knockout blow

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In the second half the pace picks up, the Saudis crush their opponents and reopen it in the 68th minute on a corner with Al Bulayhi: perfect header towards the center of the goal and Navas beaten. From there almost another match begins, with Arabia pressing on the accelerator and Costa Rica defending themselves with their nails. Mancini doesn’t trust the bench and makes only two substitutions: in the end the equalizer doesn’t arrive, on the contrary, Vivas’s national team scores the knockout blow in the 89th minute with Leal. For Mancini there is still a lot of work to do: Arabia’s fourth consecutive defeat in a friendly. Not a good sign in view of November, when there will be qualifiers for the world championship. Saudi Arabia will be back on the field on Tuesday (18.30) against South Korea, again in Newcastle, the “home” of the Pif fund. And the hope will be to have a good number of fans.