Bernardeschi was probably right when he said that, three years ago, the only “fool” that could believe that this would be possible, would be him. Or at least only very few people could have thought that, following the bitter disappointment of not qualifying for the World Cup, Roberto Mancini would have built an Italy side that is this strong and that plays such expansive attacking football. This team is also now one that has the mental fortitude to overcome difficulty, as shown in their round of 16 clash with Austria and in the thrilling semi-final against Spain. The Azzurri boss has also gone on the offensive with his words too, repeating over and over that Italy have it in them to go far in this competition. Never hiding, never going missing.

 “I’m not worried,” he said as he opened today’s press conference, “though maybe I will be tomorrow. We have a tough game ahead and we’ll have to concentrate on our own game and trying to carry out our game plan as best we can. We have these last 90 minutes to enjoy ourselves. We’ll try to do what we know we can do and what has got us to this point.” Mancini knows that he has the chance to win a trophy that he never won as a player. “I had the chance to play for Italy and didn’t even manage to win the Under-21 Euros, which we would have deserved, nor the World Cup at Italia ’90. It’s a really important time for me and I hope to take some satisfaction from this, which I didn’t as a player – even if I played in a really strong side.” On 11 July 1982 in Madrid, Italy lifted their third World Cup title to the sky, and Mancini was wearing a jacket as an homage to that one worn 39 years ago by Enzo Bearzot: “I hope that this date can bring Italians luck a second time.”

England have reached  their first European final as an extremely solid outfit. They won their group with just two goals scored from open play, put up the defensive wall to get through the Round of 16 against Germany and fought hard to beat Denmark in the semi-final. Though they did romp past Ukraine in Rome in the quarter-final. The bookmakers have England as the slight favourite over Italy, who – for the first time in this tournament – are not the bookies’ favourites to win a match. “England are a strong team. They have some brilliant players and a lot of depth. But the fact that we have reached this point, means we’re a strong side too. Sterling? He’s so quick. He’s improved immeasurably and we’ll need to watch out for him. But all of their forwards are talented. They have so much pace and are good on the ball. ”The Italy players are, on average, slightly shorter than their English counterparts: “England are physically stronger than us but football is played with the ball on the ground and we hope to do this better than them. Sometimes, the smaller guy wins; it has happened in the past and I hope it can happen again tomorrow.”

Wembley will, this time, not be a sea of Azzurro, as it was for the Spain game. Instead, the crowd will do all they can to spur England on to the nation’s first-ever European championship: “I think it’ll be a great game in a full stadium and this is great news for football lovers. 7,000 Italians will be there? We hope to hear them after full time.”

The heart and soul of the team, Giorgio Chiellini hopes to experience a different result in the final to the one in Kyiv nine years ago, when he was forced off after just 20 minutes, further widening the gap between Italy and Spain. “Tomorrow, we’ll need to have a strong heart and a clear head. There will be moments when we need to brave and others when we need to be flexible. You can’t go into a game thinking you’ll be in control for the full 90 minutes. It’s a final and we’ll need to take care of the details in order to win it. Games like these may not come along again for me in my playing career – it’s special to be a part of it. We’re aware of just how important this game is. Light-heartedness and a little bit of madness have got us this far and we’ll need them tomorrow if we’re to win this cup.”

After Lukaku and Álvaro Morata, the Azzurri will captain will tomorrow have to deal with the pace of Sterling and the unpredictability of a complete forward in Harry Kane, who has scored in each his last three games and is just one behind the duo of Schick and Ronaldo, who currently lead the race for the Golden Boot. “The first time I say Kane play was during a friendly in Turin and England and I was struck by his vast array of qualities. I’m a really big fan of his and you can now ask Paratici, who will have the fortune to watch him at Spurs.”

To those who asked whether he expected to reach the final, our captain said: “The growing feeling was that we’d have a good tournament. After the win over the Czech Republic, we felt that something big might happen. I think that kicking off the tournament in front of our fans in Rome gave us that final push. Now, we just have that extra yard to go in order to do something incredible, all together.”