Chiellini: “My magical nights at the European Championship, against Spain I wallowed like a fish”

"We were a little lucky, but we deserved it. You win with goals, not with ball possession"

ROME – The magical nights 2. Indeed, three of a kind, if we include the 2006 World Cup before the last European Championships in the list of Italian football’s dreams. But for Giorgio Chiellini, the 2021 European Championships are “the best memory of all my career”. Italy returns to the field as reigning champions, not him: lives in Los Angeles, will comment on the tournament remotely, for a US broadcaster. He will arrive in Berlin on July 14th, for the final. Interviewed by the Süddeutsche Zeitung remembers those fantastic emotions .

“We were definitely a bit lucky too. But I still think we deserved to win the tournament. Spain and England could have won too, yes. But from the beginning to the end of the tournament I didn’t see a team that had the consistency that we had us. Basically we were a team that liked to have the ball. Verratti, Jorginho, Insigne, Barella were all technical and high quality players. We also knew how to defend ourselves when necessary and we were able to do so when an opponent like Spain was in the semi-finals stronger than us in possession of the ball. That was the big exception. It seemed like we would never get the ball again … But I was in my element, like a fish in water.In the end, football is about scoring goals.”

Mancini went to Saudi Arabia… “This was completely unexpected for me and for everyone else. After the failed qualification for the World Cup something definitely broke. And even if we can’t look into other people’s heads: he made a decision that we professionals can understand. We are Southern Europeans and we always like to argue about everything.”

Spalletti? “He has always been at the forefront as a coach. It is a pleasure to listen to him talk about football. He has always been a coach of the highest level and he has demonstrated this in all his roles: at Zenit St. Petersburg, at Roma, at Inter and at others his clubs, always achieving great results. The title with Napoli was like the highlight of his career for him. And this season, with Napoli only tenth, we saw how important he was for Napoli and how much Spalletti was there Napoli champion”.