Smiles, commitment and a great desire to keep improving. All together. It is a contagious enthusiasm that one can breathe inside the Centro Tecnico Federale, where Andrea Soncin's Italy Women's team is preparing for the friendly matches against Malta and Spain, happening on Friday 25 October (18:15 CEST, Rai Sport) at the Stadio Tre Fontane in Rome and Tuesday 29 October (18:15 CET, Rai 2) at the Stadio Menti in Vicenza. The Azzurre's objective, as Lucia Di Guglielmo pointed out today, is to ‘move the bar a little higher every time we play.’ Forbidden therefore to think about the appointment with the world champions, the focus of the 30 players present at Coverciano must be exclusively on the training sessions these few days and on the 90 minutes with the Maltese side.

‘We arrived at the training camp,’ added the Roma defender, ’with the desire to repeat what we did in the Nations League and in the qualifications for the next European Championship. We are working well together and also with the coach and all the staff, who work day after day to make perform at our best’. Di Guglielmo is looking forward to wearing the Italy shirt once again (she has made 28 appearances and scored one goal for the Azzurre), also because the next match will be played in ‘her’ stadium: ‘It will be a great emotion' - she underlined with a smile on her lips - 'of course it is always exciting to wear the national shirt, but to do it again at the Stadio Tre Fontane with the hope that all our fans will be there to support us is something unique. Doubly unique.'

In addition to the Giallorossi full-back, Agnese Bonfantini also answered questions from journalists present at Coverciano. The Fiorentina forward, who leads the league's goalscoring tally with 6 goals in 7 matches, is currently experiencing one of the best moments of her career, and whether she is playing for the purple or the blue, she has no intention of curbing her momentum: ‘Before, I used to play to make others believe in me and prove who I was,’ the 24-year-old admitted bluntly, ‘now I try to compete only with myself and the results are coming. I feel like a more mature player and in the Italy team I get on very well with both the coach and my teammates. I am focused on the next two friendlies and I hope to win them both.'

Although she is still very young, with her 18 appearances Bonfantini is now a staple of Italy's new direction, characterised by a ‘harmonious atmosphere’ - to use her expression - inside and outside the dressing room. 'Since Soncin arrived, things have changed, there is happiness, there is team spirit. He is a coach who works on human values as well as technical aspects, and I am really happy to be here and to be part of this fantastic group. Against Malta it will be an important test and we are ready to prove our worth once again.'