This Is Mancini's Reason In Making A Massive Rotation In Italy Vs Wales Match

Roberto Mancini (Twitter @RobyMancio)

JAKARTA - The coach of the Italian national team, Roberto Mancini, revealed the reason for making a massive rotation when they won 1-0 against Wales in the final match of Group A Euro 2020 in Rome, Sunday local time (Monday, western Indonesia time).

Mancini made eight changes to the Italy-Wales line-up compared to the previous game, leaving the only goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, centre-back Leonardo Bonucci and midfielder Jorginho.

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— UEFA EURO 2020 (@EURO2020) June 20, 2021

According to Mancini, he did this to give many players the opportunity to prove that they have the ability to fight for the first choice place.

"All the players in this team have to prove that they are the first-choice players," Mancini said after the match.

"Especially with the fact that winning is not important, it makes it even more difficult in terms of taking an approach, but in fact, we are still fighting for the win and this is a very important result," he added.

The gamble paid off relatively well, as Matteo Pessina - who was named in the final squad to replace the injured Stefano Sensi - scored the only goal of the game to win.

Pessina cleverly hacked Marco Verratti's free-kick pass - who has just returned after missing the first two games through injury - to beat goalkeeper Danny Ward and find the net for Wales.

Mancini admitted that Italy could have done better, especially since they had the advantage of facing only 10 men as Wales defender Ethan Ampadu was shown a red card in the 55th minute.

"Maybe we could have scored more goals, but the weather was very hot and the game was very physical, so I think the players did a good job," he said.

"It is very important for us that the identity of the team remains the same, even if we change three or four players in its composition. They all know what to do and the end result has not changed much," concluded Mancini.

🥰 Favourite player in this Italy team? #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/OIuS872jw5

— UEFA EURO 2020 (@EURO2020) June 20, 2021

Victory over Wales ensured that Italy, who had already qualified for the last 16, sealed Group A's title and will await the Group C runners-up in the next match, a position still contested by Ukraine and Austria.

Italy also maintains their brilliant record in the form of a trend of not losing in 30 consecutive matches and even having a scoreless score in their last 11 matches.