Italy lost their fourth consecutive game against Argentina as the Albiceleste added another trophy to their collection. It was a deserved victory for Messi and co, as Roberto Mancini mentioned post-match: “We made two errors in the first half; the game was balanced though. They were then the better team. We should’ve scored to get back in the game but we didn’t do nearly enough in the second half.”

 “We’ll now make a lot of changes,” he continued. “It will be hard to immediately start up a cycle like the last one. We’ll need to work really hard. I think that we will let a few of the lads leave the camp because they need the rest. Since the Euros, we’ve struggled to score and we need to resolve this and try to play at a quicker tempo. However, it won’t be easy to put together a winning squad on such short notice, even if we have some great players. We’ll need to make fewer mistakes and there will be tough times ahead. We lost to a great Argentina side tonight, sure, but we need to realize that these things will happen and we need to blood the youth quickly.”

After receiving an award from Gravina before the game, Giorgio Chiellini today played his final match for his country, bowing out on 117 appearances, level with Daniele De Rossi in the all-time standings. The Azzurri captain made his final appearance in the same stadium where he won the biggest prize of his career: “We knew it would be difficult. Obviously, we hoped to win this trophy but that doesn’t cancel out what we’ve done previously. I expect there to be tough times ahead. We need to go again and I hope that the whole of Italy supports this group, who have a lot to do.”

Giacomo Raspadori started as part of the attacking trio with Belotti and Bernardeschi and tested Argentina ‘keeper Martínez in the first half, but then found chances hard to come by. “It’s a tough one to take,” the Sassuolo forward said. “We started well but then went two goals down. Their quality caused us problems and they managed to dictate the game. We should have done better though. We now need to pick ourselves up, try to put in some good performances and pick up points in the Nations League.”

Giovanni Di Lorenzo was absent in Palermo for the defeat to North Macedonia but was back in the Azzurri blue tonight, albeit for a rather tough game for the entire Italy defence. “They have some brilliant players, especially in attack. It’s a shame that we lost but we knew that it was never going to be easy.” Yesterday in his press conference, Mancini spoke about it being the end of an era: “It will depend on the gaffer as the whether he wants to switch it up. We had two intense years, in which we achieved something incredible. We have some talented youngsters. We now have four more games coming up and we need to play as well as possible. We need to go again, all together.”