On the last two occasions that Italy and Belgium crossed paths, fortune favoured the Azzurri: 2-0 in Lyon in the opening match of the European Championship in France, then 2-1 in Munich in the quarter-finals of EURO 2020. Thanks to the success against the Red Devils three months ago, Italy booked their flight to Wembley - and we all know how that ended - while the team led by the other Roberto, Martinez, had to pack their bags to go home. Tomorrow, at 15:00 CEST, in the Juventus Stadium in Turin, it will be 'only' be third place in the Nations League up for grabs, but Roberto Mancini and his boys want the bronze medal, also so that they can commence a new winning streak after Spain ended the Azzurri's record of 37 consecutive unbeaten games.

With 18,500 tickets sold (over 15,000 in two days), it confirms that Turin also wants to embrace the European Champions, who go in hunt for precious points to improve a FIFA ranking commanded by Belgium for three years: "It's an important match also to consolidate our position in the rankings”, Mancini confirmed at today’s press conference. “We have embarked on a beautiful path and we need to improve further. We have young players who can play together for another five or six years. I was very proud the other night of how much they had done, both in the first half and in the second half: playing outnumbered against Spain is very difficult, but we managed to be compact and to score. There was a risk of losing by four or five to nil, but instead, the boys did very well”.

While Belgium will have to do without Hazard and Romelu Lukaku, both struggling with muscle fatigue and sent home as a precaution, Mancini will also have to relinquish the disqualified Bonucci and Davide Calabria, who left the camp this morning due to a muscular problem in his right adductor. Inevitably, there will be some changes with respect to the match with the Red Fury: "We have to look at the physical conditions of several players”, confirmed the coach. “We will certainly change something. Trying something new means giving some other players the opportunity to prove their worth. This is important, also because some starters may be missing. And then there may be variations on the game”. There may then be space for Giacomo Raspadori to feature, who already scored in September against Lithuania in his first match as a starter: “Tomorrow he will have the chance to play, but we must also remember that he is a young boy. He will have a great future, but we cannot give him all the responsibility”. And on the definition of a false nine, the coach pointed out: "You sometimes talk about the false nine, but Insigne and Chiesa are attackers, they are not defensive players. In the first half with Spain, the team was playing well, they had a couple of chances to score goals. Then when we were down to ten, everything changed. It’s clear that you have to give them some possession, but you also have to respect the quality of your opponents”.

Alongside the coach at the press conference was Jorginho, one of the five Azzurri included in the list of thirty candidates for the Ballon d’Or. In a season that saw him triumph with both Chelsea and with the national team, many point to him as Leo Messi's most credible rival. Roberto Mancini has no doubts that he deserves the award: “Winning it would be incredible”, declared the Azzurri midfielder. “When I started it was so far away that today, being so close to winning it, it’s already incredibly beautiful. Dreaming small and dreaming big are the same thing, so it's better to dream big”.

Echoing Courtois, Carrasco also diminished the importance of tomorrow's final, but Jorginho doesn't agree: “We have just lost a match and we want to get back to winning. We have a winning mentality and after the last knockout, tomorrow's match is an opportunity. Belgium are a great national team, they have been first in the ranking for years. It’s never easy to play against them, you have to always stay on track and give your all”.