What We're Reading
Japan's 'Huge Regret' Against Italy
- Football Italia, Thursday, June 20, 2013 12:55 PM
Alberto Zaccheroni expressed “huge regret” following Japan’s 4-3 loss to Italy in a thrilling FIFA Confederations Cup encounter in Recife on Wednesday. Japan’s Italian coach lamented that Sebastian Giovinco’s late winner came after his team had hit the bar twice during the same play. “Obviously when you have the chance to win the game and moments later concede the decider there is going to be huge regret,” Zaccheroni said. “My players deserved so much more from this match.”
Meanwhile, Italy coach Cesare Prandelli said the humidity made it difficult for the Azzurri: “We deserved it against Mexico, but struggled like crazy tonight,” he said. “The humidity is something we have to deal with, as it really is difficult. We were 2-0 down and in the first 25 minutes didn’t know what we were meant to be doing. We got it back on track and then tried to preserve the result because we had run out of gas! We had no energy to do anything else at that stage,” he added. “In those moments you are not clear-headed and struggling to do everything, so you have to be even more focused.”
Forward Emanuele Giaccherini said the Azzurri did not deserve the victory: “Was it a deserved victory? In all honesty, no, but this is Italy and we know when to fight for a result in the moments of difficulty,” the Juventus player said. “A bit of fortune, refusal to give up and determination earned us the win. I don’t know what happened. Japan deserve credit, while we also started too sluggishly and were not aggressive enough.”
