‘It’s not as if I refused to play’ – Daniele De Rossi on 2018 mutiny
Daniele De Rossi, Federico Bernardeschi, Gigi Buffon, and Jorginho look back at Italy’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and the clash with the former Italy manager Giampiero Ventura.
The four-time world champions played out a goalless draw with
Sweden
at San Siro, failing to overturn a one-goal deficit from the first leg in Stockholm and missing out on World Cup for the first time since the 1950s.
Daniele De Rossi
has admitted that he angrily protested against his manager’s decision not to bring on unused substitute
Lorenzo Insigne
.
“The camera moved away, but after that moment, I did resume warming up. It’s not as if I refused to play,”
De Rossi told RAI Sport program Sogno Azzurro
.
“At that moment, we were all terrorized of going out, we had to score a goal, we had to win, so putting on a midfielder like me to score was frankly not a great idea…
“Unfortunately, it ended the way it ended and that was my last game for the Nazionale.”
The former Roma midfielder is now part of
Roberto Mancini
’s Italy staff going into Euro 2020.
Bernardeschi
points to tension with the coach and some of his teammates.
“I knew going into that game that we were not ready for a game like that and a situation like that. We didn’t have the right atmosphere in the group, there were some who were more involved than others,”
said the Juventus man
.
“There wasn’t much cohesion or clarity, it was a murky situation.”
Buffon
insists the description of an Italy team tearing itself apart was inaccurate.
“There was no mutiny. Let’s not forget, we are players there to represent a nation, not to represent ourselves or a coach. The coach gives directions, he drives the car, but we are there to give our professionalism and do our best.”
Jorginho
was at the start of his Italy adventure but has a bad memory of that event.
“One of the visions I will never forget is Buffon crying on the field, because it was his last game for Italy and it ended like that. That was tough.”
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