Roberto Mancini's eighth victory as National Team Coach, his fifth in a row in qualifying, brought Italy even closer to EURO 2020 and it doesn't matter that it was a tough ride in Yerevan. "I said that it would be a difficult game,” affirmed the Coach, “we didn't start well, then we recovered and we could have gone in ahead at the break. We’re back together after four months, the boys have only played two games in the league and it's normal to have encountered difficulties. A lot of the Armenia players are in the middle of their seasons, physically they were slightly ahead of us.”

Paradoxically, Karapetyan’s red card at the end of the first half turned out to have an adverse effect on the Azzurri, who struggled to find space in the crowded Armenian half of the pitch in the second half: "Their sending-off made it tough for us in the end because it meant they defended with ten men for the entire second half and closed up any space, things would have been better if they had remained as eleven.”

The second half saw Chiesa replaced by Pellegrini, who scored his first goal for the National Team with an excellent header. A crucially important goal which gave Italy the lead over an Armenia who had until then defended resiliently with all ten men camped behind the ball: "An unforgettable evening,” the words of the Roma midfielder, “we got a win in a difficult match in a very tough stadium. It's an important result which allows us to continue our race towards the European Championship. Playing for the National Team is a great honour and you must always be ready, no matter what role you're in.”

One goal scored, two goals ruled out for offside, one of which was an incorrect decision, and amongst all of this there was also the shot that led to the own goal to make it 3-1. Andrea Belotti ended his National Team goal-drought that had lasted since 28 May 2018 (Italy 2-1 Saudi Arabia - Mancini's first match as Coach). "I'm happy with my goal, but the team deserves the credit and for that I’d like to thank all of my teammates. Now I don't want to stop and I have to do everything that the Coach asks of me."

Having already played in the Europa League qualification matches the Torino striker arrived in good physical form himself: “They were certainly ahead of us physically and they were very dangerous on the break. We have to hold our hands up and say that we missed too many chances, myself included. There were two moments where I missed the target or didn’t react quickly enough.” Mancini's National Team still seem to be searching for their starting striker, but the competition doesn't seem to scare the Italian number 9: "We're all great players, so when I'm given the chance to take to the pitch I have to be ready. Scoring goals is simply something that us strikers have inside us, we just have to stay focused and express our quality on the pitch.”