Italy assistant manager Alberico Evani believes the Azzurri are fully prepared for Sunday’s encounter with Poland despite an ever-growing list of absentees.
The national team will be without coach Roberto Mancini, as the tactician still hasn’t tested negative for COVID-19 after his recent positive test.
Roberto Gagliardini was recently forced to pull out while Leonardo Bonucci isn’t fit enough to start the encounter, but Evani believes Italy remain focused on the task at hand.
“At this point I’ve lost track of how many players are missing,” he told reporters at his pre-match press conference. “However we are more than a team, it’s almost like a family.
“We won’t feel sorry for ourselves and we’ll try to show we are better than what is a strong team in Poland, who probably have the best striker in the world.
“However we, at least in terms of our play, have always been better. We will try to show all the principles that Mancini has tried to instill in this team. It’s true that the result is the most important thing at times, however I don’t like to win without deserving it, and we’d like to show we are stronger this time as well.
“This match will allow us to have a better understanding of the players we have at our disposal.”
Andrea Belotti isn’t at 100 percent but Evani believes Italy have other solutions should he be unavailable.
“We won’t risk anyone,” he added. “However he trained well yesterday. If he isn’t able to play we will decide on whether to start another striker [Kevin Lasagna or Stefano Okaka] or to play a false nine, which happened two years ago against Poland.
