BERGAMO, MARCH 25, 2026 \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s definitely the most important match of my career.\u2019 Rino Gattuso made it clear after giving space to Mateo Retegui, who for his part expressed pride in wearing the Azzurri shirt and, grateful to the coach, happy to return to Bergamo, where he scored goals in droves. The press conference on the eve of Game 1 of the playoffs against Northern Ireland was a crowded one. \u201dAll we have to do is win,\u201c to paraphrase Troisi and Benigni. Especially because after two unexcused absences, a third World Cup without Italy would be inconceivable and an anomaly. \u201dFor seven months I\u2019ve been hearing people say, \u201cTake us to the World Cup,\u201c\u201d recalls Gattuso, who speaks of self-awareness and awareness of the opponent. \u201cThe important thing is to arrive prepared, and I think we are. It\u2019s a match we need to prepare for both technically and tactically, as well as mentally.\u2019 We will play two games, one with the ball and one without. When we have possession, we'll have to move the ball very quickly to get into their 25-meter box." This is because, explains the coach, "Northern Ireland play vertically, with forward passes and are very good at second balls." Gattuso gets emotional when reminded that Marcello Lippi, the coach of the magical night in Berlin, said that Gattuso resembles him. Good news regarding the players who arrived with injuries, but who haven't given up. "The left-handers (Politano, Calafiori) are fine, Bastoni also remains to be evaluated but has a good chance of being used, only Scamacca is a bit behind." But it's an example of willpower and resilience," the coach makes clear, praising a group of attackers who give him confidence: Retegui, Kean, Pio Esposito, Scamacca himself, and Raspadori. "We'll play two games, one with the ball and one without. When we have possession, we'll have to move the ball very quickly to get into their 25-meter box," Gattuso concludes.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERGAMO, 25 MARZO 2026 – \u201cE\u2019 sicuramente la partita pi\u00f9 importante della mia carriera\u201d. Rino Gattuso lo dice a chiare lettere dopo avere lasciato spazio alle dichiarazioni di Mateo Retegui, che dal suo canto si dice orgoglioso di indossare la maglia azzurra e, riconoscente nei confronti del ct, felice di tornare a Bergamo dove ha […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sb_editor_width":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[618,619,620,621,622,623,624,625,626,627],"ppma_author":[30],"class_list":["post-117896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-calcio","tag-calcio-italia","tag-figc","tag-gattuso-conferenza-stampa","tag-italia-irlanda-del-nord","tag-nazionale-italiana","tag-partita-decisiva","tag-playoff-mondiali","tag-qualificazione-mondiali","tag-retegui","tag-sport-italia"],"relative_dates":{"created":"7 months ago","modified":"7 months ago"},"authors":[{"term_id":30,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"paolopicone","display_name":"Redazione Centrale","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/54de8379a15a6539d41f5cd43c1b6fc220d10161ae5fefcd739b4111632a6a1a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","first_name":"Redazione","last_name":"Centrale","user_url":"https:\/\/primasport.eu","author_category":"0","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117896"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primasport.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=117896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}