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Dino Zoff: “To the European Championship to get to the end”

You think of Italy and it immediately comes to mind Dino Zoff. That ball stopped on the line in the match against Brazil and his hands on the 1982 World Cup in Madrid. The national Dino is a timeless icon, one of those footballers, like Roberto Baggio and a few others, loved by everyone, regardless of their support. Able to win World and European.

Zoff is Zoff. Point.

In the many years of National, as a player before and as a coach after, Zoff has personally experienced a thousand experiences, from almost useless friendlies to those matches that if you win them are worth a career. And he has clear ideas about the European Championship.

«Obviously it’s not the World Cup», he tells us, «but it’s still a tournament of immense prestige. After all, when they take the field, Italy, Germany, England, France, Spain… the level of play is very high».

And the tension rises. He tried it on his skin. And he understood the difference between what a player feels and what pervades a coach. “When you are a footballer, your only goal is to do well on the pitch. You have to think only about you and your performance. Of course, sometimes the worry of not living up to expectations can be felt, but being a professional also means knowing how to manage moments like these ».

The situation is different when you go from the pitch to Park bench. A coach has many responsibilities, the first is to choose who to entrust the fate of the team to. «It is not enough to choose the strongest», continues Zoff, «a coach has to make many evaluations, from the state of form to the psychological aspect. And sometimes what seems absurd choices are instead the result of many factors put together “.

The Italian national team approaches this European Championship with great conviction. On Friday evening the 7-0 victory in the friendly match against San Marino. «We are strong, this is beyond doubt. Roberto Mancini did a great job, building a solid and rich group of high-level players. He started from a very bad situation, in a certain sense this may have helped him ».

Euro2020, this is the official name even if due to the Covid-19 pandemic it is held this summer, it will be the first traveling European Championship. “The idea of ​​being played around Europe is fascinating. We start with a home game, at the Olympic stadium in Rome. That’s a nice plus. And you know, who starts well … ».

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