Raspadori insists: ‘Italy have everything we need’ to make it to the World Cup

Giacomo Raspadori admits that there will be no excuses for Italy if they fail to qualify for the World Cup, but insists that Gennaro Gattuso and the squad have ‘everything we need to make it’ ahead of the play-off campaign in March. 

Italy had to settle for a spot in the World Cup play-offs for the third cycle in a row after finishing second behind Norway in their qualification group. Italy won six out of their eight qualifiers, but fell to disappointing defeats at home and away against Norway in their first and final matches of the group stage. 

The Azzurri will have to play Northern Ireland on March 26, and if they win that game, will go on to play against either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina away from home on March 31. If they do not win both of those matches, Italy will not feature at the World Cup in North America, for the third tournament in a row. 

Raspadori, who is due to take on Inter with Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday night, told La Gazzetta dello Sport that the Italy squad are well aware of the position they find themselves in. 

“We have to go through the play-offs. We knew that, we knew how important it is for us and for Italy as a country to not fail. We’re aware of how much it weighed on us not making the last two World Cups,” Raspadori told La Gazzetta dello Sport.  

“The national team has some difficulties, but we’ve always performed well in adversity and we want to do it again, this time to achieve a goal that we can’t afford to miss.”

Raspadori believes that it isn’t a case of fixing one specific issue for the Italy national team to succeed. 

“There’s never just one reason when things start to go wrong. We know that we have a lot of qualities, technical and mentally. We have to work from there and do everything we can to make use of our strengths. We have the players, the team is strong, the coach prepares us well. We have everything we need to make it.” 

When asked what the national team is missing, Raspadori replied: “Going to the World Cup.”