The team coached by Roberto Mancini won 3–1 against the Turkish national side. It was a rather scrappy match, but one in which the Italian players’ determination to win was evident. Compared with the recent past, this is a new development

Manager Roberto Mancini’s team played as a unit and, for at least fifty minutes (not consecutive), performed very well. The question is: is it all down to the Azzurri, or is this Turkish side simply a modest one that was poorly organised on the pitch?

The men’s national football team makes its Nations League debut against Belgium. The restoration of the ‘Mancien Régime’ is underway – ever new and elegant, just as the manager has always been able to reinvent himself time and again throughout his many careers as a coach

It has come to light with some delay that an Italian national football team has reached the final of the World Cup for humanoid robots, which took place in Beijing last month. Therefore, should interest in Mancini’s squad wane, attention can always turn to the national robot
team.

Two whole weekends without a league match, right at the start of the season, are a real blow. Not least because nobody really cares about the national teams – the players least of all.