With a charter flight from Venice Airport, which is now the Official Hub of the Italy National Teams, the squad arrived in Palermo in the late morning ahead of the match tomorrow against Armenia at 20:45 CET at the Stadio Renzo Barbera, one which will bring the European Qualifiers to a close. After qualifying with three matches to spare and securing status as a seeded side for the draw on 30 November in Bucharest, Italy will now look for another three points in order to climb the FIFA ranking and finish 2019 on a high.

By winning tomorrow, the Azzurri would make it ten wins in a calendar year for the first time. That would be another record for Roberto Mancini after bettering Vittorio Pozzo and becoming the first Italy Coach to win ten in a row. “I wasn’t expecting ten wins, but I was expecting qualify,” said Roberto Mancini at the pre-match press conference while also thanking Arrigo Sacchi for his kind words. “We’ve got a European Championship to play and we want to go into it at our best. The main objective wasn’t to win straight away but to do something different and special to make the fans feel close to the team again. We didn’t want to win playing speculative football but by playing our game and taking risks. The players have taken this on board quickly.”

Italy are also aiming to extend the unbeaten run in European qualifiers which now stands at 39 games, with the most recent defeat coming in September 2006 against France. The team would also like to finish the group on full points ahead of the start of the European Championship finals in Rome on 12 June. Down in 99th place in the world ranking and after losing 3-1 in Yerevan on 5 September, Armenia will have a tough task against an Italy side who have scored two goals in each of the last nine games and who have failed to concede in 288 minutes since Pukki scored on 8 September in Finland. “It’s a match where we have to show improvement, score goals and defend well while playing good football. These are three important things for a strong side. With the team at the moment, there’s a bit of tiredness and we will make changes.” One player is who certain to feature is Federico Chiesa: “He’s a definite. I expect a great performance and not just from him but from all those who didn’t play on Friday. They have to show that they deserve to be here.”

The important thing is to take to the pitch in a positive manner, as the team did a year ago when they dominated the game against Portugal in Milan despite not managing to pick up the win: “We’re not talking about a poor side here, even if it’s true that Cristiano Ronaldo was missing. I’ve had luck in that the lads have believed in something different. In addition to that, I am able to count on technically gifted players who perhaps have fewer physical qualities. If we win the ball high up the pitch we give less away, it might seem mundane but this is reality.” The Head Coach has been surprised at how quickly the group has taken the ideas on board, especially the younger players (“they’ve taken the chances they’ve been given”) and knows that a difficult task awaits when it comes to selecting his squad for the European Championship (“leaving some of the lads at home will be difficult”). Mancini also knows that the National Team will receive a warm welcome tomorrow in a city where Italy have won twelve of the 14 games they’ve played there: “It’s a pleasure to be here, Palermo deserve to be a Serie A side when you look at their support and the city itself. There’s a lot of disappointment that this isn’t the case. We need our supporters and it could be an enjoyable evening, even if the game won’t be easy at the start.”

Alongside the Head Coach during the press conference was Leonardo Bonucci, who moved level with Giacinto Facchetti in ninth place in terms of all-time appearances for Italy. Tomorrow, he could win his 95th cap, which would result in him being just three behind Gianluca Zambrotta: “We’ll once again be one of the great sides in Europe when we demonstrate that we’ve made that step up to compete with those who have made the difference on the world stage over the past few years,” the captain said. “Spain, France and Germany have many top players at European level, compared to them the only thing we’re lacking is experience. This is a great group, everyone enjoys each other’s company and is involved.”

Bonucci is currently wearing the captain’s armband with Chiellini having suffered a serious injury (“it was a moment which sparked something more in me, my objective was to be better than the previous two years”), and the Juventus defender is a senior figure in a side which includes many emerging young talents: “I was once like them, the more you play against intense and competitive teams the better you become. We are accelerating this process thanks to the Head Coach. I’ve made mistakes but they’ve helped me to grow.”

He then commented on Karapetyan’s red card during the match in Yerevan, when the Armenian striker accused Bonucci of feigning injury to get him sent off: “There was no simulation on my part. I had suffered a cut to my left eye four days earlier and still have the scar from the stitches now. It was an instinctive reaction, not because Karapetyan was already on a yellow card. There are moments when you just don’t think, but I have never simulated and will never do so. I have maximum respect for the Armenians and we’ll be coming up against them tomorrow, including Karapetyan. 90 intense minutes await. We expect them to sit with everyone behind the ball and try to hit us on the counter, we need to pick up the win.”