Having arrived in Vitoria, the Azzurrini completed their first training session this morning. Located in the state of Espirito Santo, the Brazilian city borders the Atlantic and is 500km north of Rio de Janeiro. Brasilia, where the team played their matches in qualifying, was at a much higher altitude with a drier climate, but Vitoria is full of humidity with the temperature close to 33 degrees. This brings a lot more fatigue and only further reinforces the need for hydration, with Nunziata’s side having just one more training session in order to acclimatise before their game against Ecuador.

Franco Tongya, scorer in the opener against the Solomon Islands, spoke about the new conditions: “This is my biggest concern. The Ecuadorians are more accustomed to this climate than us but I’ve got a lot of faith in this group. We’ve been together for a long time and we’ve overcome a lot of challenges.”

The Juventus midfielder continued: “Any team we meet will be strong, we should be wary of everyone who has made it to this point. Our next opponents, in addition to having all of the characteristics of South American football, are quick and are good technically, they’re a united group that play with a lot of energy. But that’s the same for us, we’ve all grown together in this National Team.”

Franco was born in Turin 17 years ago, with Cameroonian parents who migrated to Italy 26 years ago. His father Jean Pierre works for a sports company and his mother Aimee is a stay at home mum. His first footballing experience came at the Brandizzo football school before he then signed for Juventus aged just seven, where he won the Italian Under-15 league two years ago.

He spoke about his World Cup goal: “I felt so many emotions when I saw the ball hit the back of the net, moments like those don’t happen very often. My dream is to win this World Cup, and if we play like we did in the European Championship, we’ll go all the way.” He likes his position in the team, and with the number 10 on his back he’s injected a lot of energy and technique into the side, bringing him 15 goals in all his time across the different national youth teams. But that’s not all he’s got: he’s a student, he speaks French, a bit of English and he’s doing well at school. He’s also chasing another dream: that of making his Serie A debut for Juventus. On the topic of the league, he expressed his disappointment at the incident with Balotelli: “I understand it, it’s happened to all of us. But I think as always we’re talking about a small minority: everyone else loves him just as they ought to.”

In the meantime, the round of 16 has begun today with the first four games being played already (more here https://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/matches/#knockoutphase): Angola vs. South Korea (20:30 CET); Japan vs. Mexico (20:30 CET); Nigeria vs. Netherlands (24:00 CET); Paraguay vs. Argentina (24:00 CET).

Round of 16 schedule

Tuesday 5 November

Angola vs. South Korea (20:30 CET); Japan vs. Mexico (20:30 CET); Nigeria vs. Netherlands (24:00 CET); Paraguay vs. Argentina (24:00 CET)

Wednesday 6 November

Spain vs. Senegal (20:30 CET); France vs. Australia (24:00 CET); Brazil vs. Chile (24:00 CET)

Thursday 7 November

Ecuador vs. Italy (20:30 CET)