Italy coach Roberto Mancini spoke to Calciomercato on the eve of his team’s matchup against Poland in the UEFA Nations League.
“This path started in May. We need to put this team together and bring it to the European championship,” Mancini said.
“Portugal are a better team for now and it is rightly so. You never know about anything in football, but it seems that we will play for the second place with Poland.
“Portugal have something extra and have had a great game here. Poland remains a great team, with talented players. It will not be a simple game but we can play it well.
“When we started our goal was to rebuild a team and make a good impression in the Nations League, but there is no other goal. The rest is traced later. IT takes some time and it is not easy. The moment we manage to find the group that can do great things, we will not have problems putting the team together for the EURO.
“In order to win, you need a striker who scores goals. Then you need to look for solutions. We did well for 60 minutes against Ukraine, then we stopped. We have to try and continue on our way. Tomorrow the stadium will be full, it will be nice to play.
“It is not that if we lose tomorrow we will not go to the EURO and we will not play anymore. It can happen to Germany, England, Croatia. This Nations League was made to not play friendly matches, but I do not see any drama.
“Veratti? He is a player of good quality. We need him, he played a great game in Genoa. He needs time to get to know his teammates, but I do not think he is at 100% in terms of condition,” the coach concluded.