As Locatelli admitted, though, there is still work to do. “We haven’t taken a weight off our shoulders yet,” the 28-year-old said, “because we still have a play-off final to play.”
On the plus side, beating Wales in Cardiff would have been a tougher challenge than overcoming Bosnia and Herzegovina in Zenica – which is why several members of Gattuso’s squad were seen celebrating the Balkans’ shootout success on Thursday.
Sergej Barbarez’s side sit all the way down in 66th place in the FIFA world rankings (Italy, for all their troubles, are 12th) and remain heavily reliant on their 40-year-old captain, top scorer and all-time appearance leader, Edin Dzeko, for goals. However, the Bosnians were within 13 minutes of securing automatic qualification before losing their lead to Austria in their final group game, while they proved their mettle after falling behind in both the game and the shootout at the Cardiff City Stadium.
What’s more, all of the pressure is on the Azzurri. Italian football is in a bad place right now. As well as the national team missing two World Cups for the first time ever, the strength of the domestic league is once again under serious scrutiny after not a single Serie A side managed to make the quarter-finals of this season’s Champions League.
However, there is cautious optimism surrounding this crucial last step towards some sort of redemption. Tonali is showing why a plethora of Premier League clubs want to sign him this summer, Inter’s equally in-demand defender Alessandro Bastoni made a timely return from injury last week, and Italy also just have a stronger side than the Bosnians in general.
However, they also have a coach that has managed to restore some faith in the Azzurri after successive World Cup play-off defeats.
They unquestionably had better players in the previous losses to Sweden and North Macedonia but, as Fabio Capello told the Gazzetta dello Sport last weekthose teams didn’t look as united as Gattuso’s group. “Against Northern Ireland,” the Italian coaching icon said, “we saw a team that put its heart and soul into it.”
A similar show of effort is essential in Zenica because they’re not just going up against Bosnia and Herzegovina, they’ll also be battling the very same “demons” Tonali said they saw ahead of the semi-final. “I’m not saying we were scared,” the former Milan midfielder said“but, unfortunately, it can happen to think about those past defeats.”
There can be no excuses, though. “There’s no option but to win,” Tonali said. They owe it to themselves. To their coach. To the entire Italian football movement. And, perhaps most importantly of all, the poor children desperate to know what it feels like to watch their country compete in a World Cup.
