At Coverciano, with the hills above Florence framing Italy’s training base, Roberto Mancini has returned to the national team promising both restoration and ambition. Ahead of Friday’s Nations League meeting with Belgium, the Italy coach said he wants to win back supporters who believe the Azzurri have let them down and build a side capable of controlling matches through good football.
Mancini said he feels an obligation to those supporters after Italy’s recent disappointments, including three successive World Cup absences. He accepted that the anger around the team is understandable, arguing that the only convincing response will come on the pitch. “If supporters feel betrayed, they have every right to be upset,” he said. “We must do things properly and take Italy back to the level it deserves.”
A return under immediate pressure
The 61-year-old is beginning his new spell without the softer runway of friendly matches. Italy’s first appointments are competitive ones, starting against Belgium, and Mancini said that makes it essential to establish quickly which players can form the basis of the next cycle.
His stated aim is not simply to collect results, although winning remains central to his plans. Mancini wants an Italy side that dictates play, performs with quality and consistently gives everything. “You cannot win every match, but we will always go out intending to do so,” he said.
Looking towards the next four years, Mancini insisted that he has returned to compete rather than manage expectations. “I never begin with the idea of losing,” he said, adding that he is confident Italy can achieve something significant during that period.
The coach also spoke of the emotion of being back with the Azzurri three years after his previous departure. He recalled the successful moments shared during his first tenure, which began in May 2018 after Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia.
That rebuilding campaign brought the European Championship title in 2020, played in 2021, as well as a 35-match unbeaten run. Yet the cycle later unravelled with Italy’s failure to reach the Qatar World Cup, and Mancini left the post in August 2023. His return now begins in a different mood: less celebration, more repair, with Belgium providing the first official test of whether Italy can again become a team that leads rather than follows.
