Ahead of Italy's UEFA Nations League group stage opener at home against Belgium, national team coach Roberto Mancini was interviewed by Sky Sport Italia reporter Peppe Di Stefano.

Coach, although you don't play on the field yourself, what are your current feelings and emotions? Let's start with Gigio (Donnarumma). This stadium and this area of Rome—indeed, the entire city—are places where we've enjoyed great success in the past, aren't they? Beyond the purely tactical and technical aspects, what are your personal feelings about bringing your team back to this Roman ground?

Tomorrow's match will undoubtedly be like every time we've played here before—filled with immense excitement and emotion. As you said, it's absolutely true that we've achieved tremendous satisfaction and supreme glory in this stadium. We very much hope to take a solid and positive step forward tomorrow and make a fresh start.

Gigio mentioned that this summer has been extremely complex and difficult for all of us. This morning, the veteran players in our team sat down for the first time since those events to openly discuss everything they experienced. Can you still detect a lingering shadow in their eyes—particularly those of the older veterans? For instance, any psychological residue left by that terrible night and the recent period?

Unfortunately, this is part of football. The world of football is inherently made up of these moments. Sometimes you lose matches, and sometimes you lose crucial matches in an extremely bizarre and absurd way, just as the Italian national team unfortunately experienced.

However, one must always look forward and steadfastly continue moving ahead. Moreover, the most magical thing about football is that it always gives you an opportunity to redeem yourself and turn things around in a relatively short period of time. Therefore, we must remain clear-headed, learn from these painful lessons, but at the same time focus all our attention on the road ahead.

Just a few days ago at a press conference, you said, "I'm actually the first person to be curious, eagerly anticipating the performance of these young lads." Now, after four or five days, has your curiosity been satisfied? Among these young players, have some adapted faster than others? Has any particular player impressed you in a special way, performing better than the rest?

Although it's been four or five days, we've only had about two formal training sessions. Monday was mainly recovery work, followed by two days of targeted training. Even so, we've had enough time to get to know some of the young players better—previously, apart from seeing them in league matches, we weren't particularly familiar with them. During daily training sessions, you can indeed observe and understand a young player's true qualities and condition very quickly, which is crucial and effective for us.

Finally, I'd like to ask you about Piatek and Kean. This is a topic everyone on the sidelines has been discussing. Is it realistic to see both of them playing together? Is this part of the attacking football philosophy and strategic plan you wish to implement?

All possibilities exist, and we still have plenty of time to consider them before tomorrow's match. Overall, the lads are fully prepared and each one has shown an extremely strong desire to play. We hope to make the correct and reasonable squad selection.

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