Mancini: "I’ll make changes against Turkey. Barella must score more goals, the long break was too tiring"

Italy head coach Roberto Mancini spoke on the eve of the Nations League fourth-round clash in Bologna against Vincenzo Montella's Turkey after the good draw in Paris against France: "The most important thing in a group is to believe in yourselves, and to think that you can achieve any result."

"The players have technical quality and, when they are more aware of what they are worth, they can do a lot. The line-up? We will change something tomorrow."

Mancini also highlighted the quality of the opposition in his press conference: "Montella has done a great job in taking the Turkey national team back to the World Cup and into Nations League A. At the moment, they are struggling a bit more also because they are missing several important players. It will not be such a foregone conclusion, Turkey are an excellent team, in the first meeting we were good and tomorrow it will depend on us. We must not underestimate Turkey just because they lost to Belgium, the mistake we must not make is to think it will be an easy match."

Nicolò Barella also spoke alongside the manager: "He is still young and can represent a lot for the national team. Even if I agree with him: he has to improve in terms of goals," said Mancini.

With the last of the four scheduled matches to come, the head coach briefly took stock: "We have enjoyed ourselves during this break, I hope the players have too. Now we have to finish in style." Is this format better, with longer breaks and more matches, or the previous one? "I don't know, I think this way is too tiring, especially for the players," said Mancini, rejecting the four matches spread across two weekends.