Milena Bertolini always tries to stay positive, even in the wake of the heavy 5-0 defeat to Sweden. “I just told the girls to keep their heads up and take forward the positives from the game,” she said. “We played well for 30 minutes and caused Sweden problems. Then, we made mistakes and conceded from corners. We conceded twice like that and we fell apart. We collapsed and weren’t able to get back into the game”.

Bertolini still believes that Italy can go through, in spite of their issues defending from set pieces: “I was pleased with what I saw in the first half. We knew Sweden would be a strong side. We need to be more calm after we concede and learn how to react. We have to believe in our own ability, in our quality. This defeat doesn’t erase our hard work and development until now. We gave them too much space at the corner but I’m convinced that, with the quality we have, we can still go through. We now need to beat South Africa but we knew that it would probably go all the way to the final group game. We can do it. We need to take the positives that we did and improve at set pieces, but I’m confident”.

As always, Barbara Bonansea stepped up in defeat, today more than ever given that she captained the side. “It was a really strange game,” the Juventus forward said, “we started well and had a lot of chances in the first 30 minutes. Then, we got punished at a corner. We didn’t stay calm and we didn’t stay in the game. We conceded three goals from set pieces and we need to improve and work on these things. We were poor at the dead ball situations today”.

She is confident ahead of the final group game though: “These defeats do hurt. I’m not even going to take that final goal into consideration. Losing like that is sure to damage your confidence. But I’m happy with our approach to the game and how we started. We need to keep playing, not get ourselves down and work on what went wrong. We’re a united group and we need to win over final group game in order to go through. The tears from the youngsters show their passion for this shirt. We’re really passionate. Starting tomorrow, we’ll prepare for South Africa. You win together and you lose together. We need to believe because we still have a chance to progress. We will try to win and go through”.

Three of Italy’s Giallorosse, Annamaria Serturini, Manuela Giugliano and Elena Linari, also had their say after the final whistle.

Giugliano said, “In the first 38-40 minutes, we were united, compact and were the better team. After, when you concede two consecutive goals from a corner, it’s never easy to stay in the game. We’ll take forward what we did in the first half an hour because it wasn’t all doom and gloom. We won’t stay down after this game. It happened already against France at the Euros. We’re at a World Cup now and it’s an honour to represent this country. We won’t get ourselves down and we’ll look ahead because we want to show our worth”.

Her teammate Serturini echoed that opinion: “A tough one to take. We didn’t deserve to lose 5-0; we conceded three goals in six minutes. But the aim in our minds is still to go through and we’ll give it our all to beat South Africa. Heads up: we can and must play well. We need to go again from the Argentina game and the first half an hour today”.

Linari too appeared defiantly confident, convinced that this team has what it takes to beat South Africa: “The result is a deceptive one, especially taking into account the first 35 minutes. The goals from corners saw us fall apart. We rushed into trying to get back into the game. We’re disappointed with the result but we know that it’s all still in our own hands. We need to up the ante, analyse our mistakes and understand where we went wrong. This game shows us that we still have work to go to reach Sweden’s level but we’re convinced that we can do it”.