Roberto Mancini, Italy's coach, acknowledged his disappointment on Wednesday for losing to Spain in the semi-finals of the Nations League and ending his run of 37 unbeaten matches, but he considered it better to fall now than "in the final of the Eurocup or a World Cup."
"We knew that sooner or later the defeat would come, better tonight than in the final of the Eurocup or a World Cup," said Roberto Mancini in the press conference after the match at San Siro, which ended 2-1 in favor of Spain against Italy with a double by Ferran Torres.
Italy, the current European champion and winner of four World Cups, saw their match definitively complicated when Leonardo Bonucci was sent off for a double booking just before halftime.
Italy will seek victory in the Qatar 2022 Qualifiers
"Leo made a naive mistake and in these matches you can't make them. Even though Spain is a great team and plays very well, we had our chances. It's a shame because we could have fought until the end," he said.
"I think the red card conditioned the match because up until that moment they had more possession, but we had chances to score and equalize. Then we had to be more careful not to concede the second goal just before halftime," he added.
The Italian coach also congratulated the Spanish player Pablo Martín Páez "Gavi," who at 17 years old became the youngest player for Spain to debut.
"He is very good despite his age. I think Spanish players have extraordinary talents. They play football very well," he said.
OUR PODCASTS
Which provides greater immunity against Covid-19, natural infection or the vaccine?
Vaccines provide much more immunity than having had the disease. How does this happen and what studies have been done on the subject? Dr. Elmer Huerta explains the details.