WE’RE ITALY, WE’LL QUALIFY, INSISTS COACH VENTURA
MILAN: “We’re Italy and if we qualify it will be by playing football,” coach Gian Piero Ventura insisted on Sunday on the eve of a crunch match against Sweden in Milan.
“We need everything tomorrow — tactics, heart and determination,” Ventura told a press conference at the team’s Appiano Gentile training centre north of Milan.
The 69-year-old remained jovial and defiant that his troops would be on the road to Russia, adding he was “amazed people are surprised we’re in the playoffs”.
“We knew from the moment we picked Spain in the group phase that we’d be heading for the play-offs. Nobody can be surprised we reached this point.
“I realise this is the way it works in Italy, but I didn’t expect all this,” he added of the reaction generated by the humiliation of an impending exit. We started out with people talking about the apocalypse. The first leg performance shows that we are perfectly capable of overturning the 1-0 result.
“We analysed the things that went well and others that did not go so well. I’m fully aware that this game is fundamental for us, but it’s the same scenario as when I first signed to lead the national side,” he continued.
“We will change something, because only 48 hours have passed. We hope that it’ll be change for the better.”
Marco Verratti will be suspended for Monday’s game with defender Leonardo Bonucci wearing a protective mask after breaking his nose in a bruising first leg against Sweden.
“Individuals playing are irrelevant, it’s about the team and the overall approach,” said Ventura. JOHANNESBURG: North African nations Morocco and Tunisia took contrasting routes as they qualified for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Morocco scored twice within five minutes through Nabil Dirar and Medhi Benatia during the opening half to triumph 2-0 in the Ivory Coast and win Group C.
The “Atlas Lions” are going back to the tournament for the first time since 1998 after finishing with 12 points, having not conceded a goal during the sixmatch group campaign.
Ivory Coast, who never looked like recovering from the firsthalf blows, came second with eight points followed by Gabon with six and Mali with four.
Tunisia could not break down neighbours Libya in Rades on the outskirts of Tunis and had to settle for a 0-0 draw that was just enough to see them first over the finishing line.
With second-placed Democratic Republic of Congo netting twice in stoppage time to defeat Guinea 3-1 in Kinshasa, only one point separated the top two.
Unbeaten Tunisia collected 14 points to book a first World Cup appearance since 2006, DR Congo had 13, Libya four and Guinea three.
Senegal sealed a place in Russia Friday by winning 2-0 in
South Africa and the other two African qualifiers, Nigeria and Egypt, secured slots last month.