“Some of the Italians seemed a bit more experienced than we were,” said Flick. That wouldn’t have sounded so effective had Italy coach Roberto Mancini not had a number of potential debutants in his squad.
In tennis, “one would speak of unforced errors”, i.e. avoidable, unforced errors, said Thomas Müller, who had led the way to the manageably full fan block. “As a result, not only did our attacks fizzle out a bit, but Italy also won the ball. And we used up more punches to get the ball back.” The game “just tumbled along,” added the experienced Bayern professional.
Flick: Will “get back on track”
Joshua Kimmich (73rd minute) prevented the first defeat in the tenth international match under Flick’s direction shortly after Italy’s lead by Lorenzo Pellegrini (70th). “It doesn’t matter if it was fair or not – we wanted to win,” said Kimmich on the RTL microphone. “We didn’t manage to put our game on the pitch. We didn’t play as intensely as we are used to.”
After the game against England, the games on June 11th in Budapest against Hungary and three days later in Mönchengladbach again against Italy. “It’s now about making things better,” said Flick, referring to the offensive in Bologna, which was not dangerous. “I’m not worried at all, I think we’ll get back on track and score more goals.”