With the advances and postponements of Serie A it’s official: no internships for the national team

Nothing to be done for the internship that the national team had asked to take place at the beginning of February, on the 2nd and 3rd or (more probably) on the 9th and 10th in Coverciano. For a few days it had been clear that, thanks to the constraints of the calendar and television contracts, there was no room for maneuver to dedicate 48 hours to the Azzurri involved in the playoffs to qualify for the next World Cup on March 26th in Bergamo against Northern Ireland (and hopefully also on the 31st away against the winner of Bosnia-Wales). Today, however, the official announcement arrived with the Serie A Football League which communicated the advances and postponements of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth matchdays, which, together with the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup, should have been “modelled” to allow the Azzurri to gather in Coverciano. Coach Gattuso has come to terms with it, even if he isn’t happy. Like the Federation. In the League, however, they spread their arms: even though they wanted to lend a hand, the limits were too rigid.

INSTALLATIONS

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The story is now known: after participation in the playoffs became official (to tell the truth, it had been talked about even before given that the ranking situation was already compromised in September…), finding a location for a training camp for the national team in Coverciano at the beginning of February, i.e. before the resumption of the European cups, was the objective of coach Gattuso and the FIGC. Rino asked for it in no uncertain terms, not so much to try out schemes on the pitch (for example, there was no possibility of having the Azzurri who play abroad like Donnarumma, Retegui, Tonali, Calafiori, Ruggeri, Chiesa and Udogie), but to shape the group and train together on the pitch. There had been a Lega-FIGC meeting in which the desire to find a solution was expressed. It wasn’t possible. It was also explained to Gattuso that it was not possible to find the right balance between European cups, the championship and the Italian Cup. Not even concentrating three of the four quarters of the Italian Cup in the first of the two weeks, the hypothesis that had been taken into consideration before raising the white flag precisely because of the Champions League.

CHAMPIONS “ENEMY”

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But where do the difficulties in finding an internship window come from? First of all from the European cups given that the last day of the Champions League will be played entirely on Wednesday 28 January at 9pm. And this made it difficult to bring forward the matches of Napoli, Juventus, Inter and Atalanta to Saturday. It is no coincidence that only one will be played on Saturday, that of Napoli who will be at home in Europe (against Chelsea) and who will then be at Maradona again in Serie A against Fiorentina (Saturday 31 January). Inter, Juventus and Atalanta will instead be away on the last day of the Champions League and will therefore play on Sunday. Could they have played on Saturday? To help the national team, yes, but it would have been a handicap because the hours of rest would have been fewer. And then there are the matches of our teams in the last round of the Europa League, with Bologna and Roma both away on Thursday 29th. For this reason in the championship they will play respectively on Tuesday 3 February at home against Milan and on Monday 2nd in Udine against the Bianconeri. The double window not on the weekend was put in place after the training camp was cancelled, but one of the two matches would still have been played on Monday (Bologna-Milan). This is why the internship on February 2nd and 3rd would have made no sense. There would have been a handful of players available…

EYE ON FIORENTINA

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And what happens now? The only option to help the national team is to work on the day before the match on March 26th. Perhaps bringing it forward to Saturday. Easy? Not even by chance because Fiorentina-Inter is on the calendar, a match that can only be played on Sunday if Fiorentina passes the Conference League playoffs and reaches the round of 16. And Fiorentina-Inter with Kean and all the Nerazzurri called up is certainly not a match like the others for Gattuso’s Italy. An extra day of rest would be useful for them. But even in this case, it is not the national team that decides.