Roberto Mancini under pressure to rebuild against England after Italy's ‘lowest moment in recent history'

Italian football is currently going through a very interesting phase. At club level, runaway Serie A leaders Napoli are arguably among the best teams in Europe right now, evidenced by their current Champions League run. The quarter-final sees them paired with AC Milan and with Inter also in the last eight, Italy has the most representatives of any country still in the competition, coupled with the fact Juventus and Roma remain in Europa League contention.

Ad At international level, the Azzurri are of course reigning European Champions following their penalty shootout triumph over England at Wembley in 2021. However, despite a 37-match unbeaten run between 2018 to 2021, they have failed to qualify for the last two World Cups — infamously losing their decisive play-off against North Macedonia to miss out on Qatar 2022. UEFA Nations LeagueIn praise of Italy, Nations League finalists and Europe's weirdest team — The Warm-Up29/09/2022 AT 07:30 Despite this, Italy topped their Nations League group — featuring Germany and England — with the finals to look forward to this summer.

But ahead of the commencement of qualification for Euro 2024, where they coincidentally face England again in their opening qualifier in Naples, Eurosport Italy’s Davide Bighiani says the World Cup failures still weigh heavily. “There is a lot of pressure on Roberto Mancini,” he said. “He remained at the helm of the national team thanks to his success at the European Championships, but the fans won’t bear another disappointment after only watching the last two World Cups on TV.

“The No. 1 goal is and must be to return to the World Cup.” “At the moment there isn't much trust around Italy. Mancini has to rebuild the group and the 'human material'