At the Stade de France, Italy drew 1-1 with France and Roberto Mancini came away talking about a side that is moving in the right direction. Alessandro Bastoni scored the equaliser, his second goal in as many games, after France vs Italy had swung to France through Michael Olise before Dayot Upamecano's late red card.
Mancini's reading of the night
"We played as a team, attacking and defending together, and so it is certainly a very positive evening for us," Mancini said to football-italia.net. He added: "I wanted this to be another step forward in our journey."
That was the line he kept coming back to. Mancini pointed to the way Italy tried to play football against a France side he described as full of champions, even with Gianluigi Donnarumma making seven saves to keep the score within reach.
The result leaves Italy with four points, behind France on seven and Belgium on six in the group table mentioned by Mancini. The draw did not solve everything, but it did give Italy something more concrete than a narrow escape, especially with Bastoni contributing from the back line.
France's frustration and Italy's response
Zinédine Zidane's view was more mixed. Speaking to Foot Mercato, in comments translated from French, he said France had the chances to kill the match and that he was frustrated not to get the result. In a separate interview with So Foot, also translated from French, he said France's first-half possession was "a somewhat sterile possession" before they corrected things after the break.
He still praised the performance levels, saying his players were exemplary in pressing and one against one situations. But Italy's shape held, and when the opening came for Bastoni, they took it.
Mancini was not pretending the point solved every issue. He was arguing that the performance matched the message, and on a night in Paris where Italy absorbed pressure, equalised and left with a draw, that is hard to dismiss.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →
