Three years on from their World Cup qualification nightmare, Italy are competitive again under Roberto Mancini

THREE years ago this month, the Italian national team suffered one of the bleakest moments in its long and storied history.

A meek performance in a two-legged defeat to Sweden in a qualification play-off meant Italy would be absent from the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia, the first time in 50 years the four-time world champions had missed football’s most prestigious tournament. The fallout, initially, took the form of a maelstrom of humiliation, indignation and rage.

Manager Gian Piero Ventura, the experienced and respected coach, was turned into a national figure of derision and sacked. He was replaced six months later by former Manchester City and Inter Milan boss Roberto Mancini. And since then, almost miraculously, things could hardly have gone more smoothly for the Azzurri.

Aside from a brief moment of friction early on, which saw Italy go five games without a victory after a friendly win over Saudi Arabian in Mancini’s debut fixture, through a combination of faith in a small core of veterans, opportunities given to an exciting crop of emerging talent and a clear, well-defined tactical plan, Italy once again resemble a formidable force on the international stage.

They won all 10 group games in qualification for the now-rescheduled European Championships, clinching their place in the tournament that will – fingers crossed – be staged next summer with three games to spare, their earliest ever qualification.

With the addition of a win over the USA in a November 2018 friendly, Italy compiled an 11-game winning streak, a national record. It has now been more than two years since they last tasted defeat.

Breaking: Roberto Mancini calls 41 players for Italy's next three games… pic.twitter.com/kDrag7CVj0

— footballitalia (@footballitalia) November 7, 2020

Italy might have appeared a mess upon Mancini’s appointment, but the wealth of young, gifted players beginning to establish themselves is now the envy of most nations in Europe. Mancini has invested belief in these blossoming talents, giving the likes of Nicolo Barella (23), Gianluigi Donnarumma (21) and Federico Chiesa (23) regular starts, while also blooding Nicolo Zaniolo (21), Sandro Tonali (20) and Moise Kean (20).

Tactically, Mancini hasn’t tried to reinvent the wheel. He has established a straightforward 4-3-3 set-up which sees Chelsea’s Jorginho and Paris Saint-Germain’s Marco Verratti share playmaking duties in midfield. Pace and invention is provided from the flanks by the likes of Chiesa, the now-injured Zaniolo and Napoli’s Lorenzo Insigne. And at the point of attack, prolific centre-forwards Ciro Immobile and Andrea Belotti vie for the No.9 spot.

“You can see there’s an Italy side with more conviction, more desire to do what the coach says and follow the very clear ideas we considered from the start to be wise,” Belotti said after scoring a brace against Liechtenstein last year.

“You can see we’re doing some wonderful things on the field, especially compared to the ugliness of two years ago.”

There has been one brief moment of disorganisation of late, though, a minor mishap that left the manager somewhat red-faced. Mancini mistakenly left Juventus centre-back Giorgio Chiellini on the bench for a UEFA Nations League game against Bosnia and Herzegovina in September, blaming his eyesight for the oversight.

"It was my fault," Mancini said after the game, which finished 1-1. "They showed me the line-up, I didn't have my glasses on and just said it was fine. I didn't notice [Francesco] Acerbi was there rather than Chiellini.

"It's not like we chose a goalkeeper rather than a defender, it's not a massive difference, but yes, it was an error."

Italy face Estonia in a friendly on Wednesday before hosting Poland in the Nations League four days later. Mancini’s men currently rest second in their group, sandwiched between leaders Poland and third-placed Holland. Three draws from their opening four fixtures hint at the work still to do despite the rapid recent improvements.

Upon Ventura’s dismissal, Mancini wasn’t even in Italy’s top two considerations for the national manager’s post, having only been offered the role after Carlo Ancelotti and Massimiliano Allegri declined. In the years since he guided Manchester City to their first Premier League title, his stock had plummeted, with short-lived spells with Galatasaray, Inter and Zenit Saint Petersburg yielding only a Turkish Cup win.

Now, though, with his own patched-up reputation hitched to the rehabilitation job he’s undertaken with the nation he represented 34 times as a player, Mancini and Italy are relevant again.