Italy closer to Euro 2016: Pirlo - Verratti hyphen

With a narrow 1-0 home win over Mata yesterday, September 3, Italy climbed to the top of Group H and are getting closer to the festival in France next summer. Coach Conte's combination of two midfielders, one young and one old, is showing bright signs.

In the 69th minute, in the seventh round of the Euro 2016 qualifying match between Italy and Malta, from a pass from the right wing by Antonio Candreva, Graziano Pelle flew to head the ball from close range to open the scoring. On the sidelines, coach Antonio Conte shouted with excitement. That goal was like a crane lifting off the stone that had been weighing on him for the past few months. Before this match, Italy had not won in four consecutive matches (three draws, one loss, including two friendlies). And against the weak opponent Malta, they only scored after a series of missed opportunities.

Similar to the first leg away, Pelle (No. 20) was still the one who directly brought Italy three points against Malta at home in Firenze. Photo: Reuters.

Combined with the 0-0 result between Croatia and Azerbaijan two hours earlier, Italy climbed to the top of Group H, with 15 points after 7 matches, one more than Croatia. After causing confusion with poor results, Italy seemed to make their tifosi realize that the team is still looming towards Paris next summer. The team in blue has remained the same for many years - capricious, somewhat unreliable, but full of cunning and despite struggling, still achieving at least the set goals. Football lovers of the renaissance homeland often find it difficult to enjoy matches with spectacular scores of their favorite team, but in return, they enjoy the intelligence and bravery of this team. It is something that belongs to the Italian identity - an identity that has not faded even though they are in a period of scarcity of talent.

In the 78th minute, Marco Verratti was taken off and replaced by Roberto Soriano. Verratti, 23 years old, is considered the future of Italian football, but was taken off when there were still 15 minutes left (including injury time). On the field at that time, the person 13 years older than him, the contemporary icon of Italian football, just called back from the US, Andrea Pirlo, at the age of 36, played the full 90 minutes. At the end of the match, Pirlo even received respect from his opponents when they ran to where he was standing to exchange shirts. The image of Verratti being taken off early while Pirlo was still on the field symbolized something bigger - Italy still did not have the courage to live without Pirlo and did not have the courage to put all their trust in Verratti.

Almost a year ago, at the Malta National Stadium, it was also the Euro 2016 qualifier between Italy and Malta. Italy still won 1-0 with difficulty as usual against small teams, the only scorer was still Graziano Pelle. That October day had only one difference - Verratti took over as Italy's conductor, while Pirlo sat on the bench for the entire 90 minutes. The result that "Pirlo the Second" received after the match was countless criticisms. Gazzetta dello Sport even gave him a five, the lowest score among the players on the field. After the match, Verratti had to stand up for a press conference and apologetically replied: "In the first half, I was marked too tightly. In the second half, it was better but I passed the ball wrong. I'm quite disappointed".

At first glance, Pirlo seems to be playing the role of a monitor lizard, hindering the development of his junior Verratti. But coach Conte has his reasons for continuing to trust his veteran student, alongside the young man currently on the PSG payroll. Photo: Reuters.

In contrast to that day, when meeting Malta again yesterday, in the deadlocked first half, the biggest highlight that Italy had was Verratti's skillful ball handling in the middle of the opponent's siege. Not to mention, he also had a delicate ball turn and shot over the crossbar of the opponent's goal in the 24th minute. It's not that coach Conte didn't give Verratti a chance, but he experimented to understand that the best way to help Verratti develop, to one day receive the sword from Pirlo's hand, was to let the two play together.

In the summer of 2011, when Conte brought Pirlo to Juventus Arena. He changed the face of Juve a lot, one of the big changes was Pirlo's professional value and extraordinary temperament helped the young players playing with him improve. A typical example is Claudio Marchisio, accordingly, the Juventus guy only scored four goals, had four assists and a successful pass rate of 84.4% in the 2010-2011 season, but then, he scored 9 goals, 4 assists and a successful pass rate of 85.7% in the 2011-2012 season - the first season playing with Pirlo. And those parameters increased again in the following season. Not only Marchisio but also Paul Pogba and Arturo Vidal all broke out to become the world's top midfielders when playing around Pirlo in the center.

This statement was later acknowledged by Marchisio himself on the day Pirlo left Juve for the distant United States. "I want to dedicate a few words to Pirlo, for everything he has done for us, and for helping me and my teammates grow together. Pirlo was a very important player for my career, during the years I saw him playing in front of the defense. Pirlo helped me not only on the pitch. I don't have the same qualities as him, but I learned a lot from Pirlo," said the Juventus midfielder. Over the past 100 years, Italian football has produced many geniuses, but the kind of genius that young players around him look up to and improve themselves like Andrea is very rare.

Pirlo is gradually retreating into the background, but is still used by the Italian national team at certain times, playing the role of tutor, accompanying Verratti - the boss of the Italian midfield in the near future. Photo: AFP.

Conte understands that, and needs Pirlo. He doesn't need him to be a "Dan-Ko heart" like the two teachers and students played together at Juventus, but needs his experience to supplement the lessons for the surrounding midfielders, especially the "heir" Verratti. Through the fact that Pirlo only plays in moderate matches, it is easy to see that this is a Pirlo who regulates the game and distributes passes in the position that requires the least effort at his age. With a Verratti up front who plays freely and creates breakthroughs with skillful ball handling, like the match with Malta this morning, Italy is not without a bright path.

However, Verratti, look at the way Marchisio, Paul Pogba or Vidal shine: don't try to be the "new Pirlo". 15 years ago, Andrea Pirlo himself drowned in the nickname "new Baggio". So, Verratti, be yourself. Italy only has one Pirlo, and Italy now needs a Verratti with his own identity, not following any stereotype.

Group H

* Croatia was deducted one point for allowing home fans to use racist language and behavior towards the Italian team during the match in Split on June 12.

According to VNE