italy’s strength lies in collective and solidity at Euro 2016 – Buffon
Italy captain Gianluigi Buffon has said their narrow 1-0 win over Sweden showed once again that his team’s unity is their biggest quality at Euro 2016.
The Azzurri had to wait until the 88th minute of Friday’s Group E match to book their place in the round of 16 as Eder found a rare gap in the Swedish defence to score past Andreas Isaksson.
Italy were much less impressive in Toulouse than they were in their opening 2-0 victory over Belgium but Buffon was pleased they had still found a way to win a cagey game.
“As everybody knows, I believe our team’s strength is the collective and our solidity,” the Juventus goalkeeper told reporters after the game. “That’s our best weapon.
“We have guys who are very useful to the way we play and this allows us to make the best of any situation.”
Sweden captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic has now failed to score in his last six games against Buffon but the Italian still remembers how the striker netted a crucial equaliser that helped end his team’s interest in Euro 2004.
“Because the goal he scored against me in 2004 was worth six,” Buffon said, when asked to explain why Ibrahimovic had not beaten him in so long.
Advertisement
“When we had the ball we didn’t succeed in doing the things that we tried to highlight,” he said. “I think there were practically no goal chances today.
“There were a lot of things today — the heat, the pitch was dry. The two teams, when they didn’t have the ball, they got back to defend well. Both teams didn’t want to concede a goal.
“That created an atmosphere on the pitch where it wasn’t good for scoring goals today even if we had the fortune to score one at the end of the match.”
Italy are now through to the knockout stages with a game to spare and without conceding a goal. But Motta rejected talk of his side now being one of the favourites to win the competition.
He said that because of a lack of star attacking players, Italy would have to do “something extra” every time they take the field in order to have a chance of winning any game.
“To make Italy one of the favourites already is exaggerating a bit,” he said. “Our reality is to try and play well every match and we’ll see at the end what we’re capable of.”
