Ten years without a World Cup. Gattuso wants to change everything Thursday night: "This group deserves a joy"

No alibi. It’s the mantra that Rino Gattuso carries with him to Bergamo, where on Thursday evening Italy faces Northern Ireland in the playoff that determines World Cup qualification. Bastoni, Scamacca, Chiesa — the latter arriving in Coverciano the night before and already sent home the next morning — are heavy losses, but the coach doesn’t want to hear excuses: “We all know how schedules are made.”

The secret, for Gattuso, is the group. The one he has built, the one he has nurtured, and in which he believes wholeheartedly: “For how they are behaving, for the attachment they have shown me — he says — we deserve a joy.” Words loaded with the weight of an Italy that has been absent from the World Cup since 2014, missing in Russia in 2018 and in Qatar in 2022.

Winning on Thursday would mean securing a spot in the final, to be played either in Bosnia or Wales. But first, there is only Northern Ireland, a tough opponent not to be underestimated. The lapses in the second half against Norway at San Siro are not forgotten. Concentration, calmness, compactness: that’s what the coach asks for. And a performance, finally, from the Italian national team.