Italy coach Giovanni Trapattoni pronounced himself pleased with the performance of his inexperienced team in last night’s friendly win over Portugal.
Italy’s 1-0 win came as a welcome releief to the beleaguered Trapattoni, who has seen his squad win just once in their last eight games.
“It was an important win from many points of view,” said Trapattoni, “It is a lift to our morale after that poor run of results and we needed a victory”.
Even more staisfying for Trapatttoni was that last night’s win was achieved without the services of his first choice forward line. However, the three debutants on show – Fabrizio Miccoli, Bernardo Corradi and Mauro Camoranesi – justified their places with impressive displays, with Corrado scoring the only goal of the game.
“I asked them to play as they do for their clubs – with freedom in their heads. We all know that a debut for your country is an emotional occasion but Miccoli, Corradi and Camoranesi did everything they should have,” said Trapattoni.
“There was a lot of pressure on Miccoli but he played in a manner that allowed him to overcome that,” added the Italy coach.
“He showed what he is capable of, his full repertoire — great pace, confident control, dribbling. He is one you can count on.
“Coaches always have problems and believe me it is better to have problems of abundance”.
“It gives you some guarantees – we can work on it,” continued Trapatttoni.
“But we should not go overboard after this result. In a month we have to face Finland, which will be a very tough game even if we now have a little more faith in ourselves”.
