The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Iker-Casillas-c16815.
Cesare Prandelli has admitted his disappointment on the golden one-on-one chance that was wasted by a confused http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mario-Balotelli-c23937, but has maintained that the substitution that followed was not a punishment.
Italy’s first match against the World and European Champions Spain ended in 1-1 stalemate, but things could have ended differently had the Manchester City striker made good of the two golden opportunities.
The Azzurri forward was substituted for Antonio Di Natale after his second missed chance, and the Udinese-man came in to provide the opener of the match.
Prandelli was as baffled as Balotelli himself at the missed opportunity, and suggested that the confusion could have arose because that striker was left with two options in a place where he is used to just one.
However, the Azzurri boss stressed that a better decision by the Manchester City striker would have been to pass the ball to his fellow attacker.
The Italy manager was appreciative of Balotelli’s intensity in the game, and stated that the yellow card did not worry him.
The former Fiorentina tactician went on to sideline all notions that the Manchester City forward’s substitution was a punishment, and pointed out that he had already opted to bring on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Antonio-Di-Natale-c6306 before the missed opportunity.
While talking to the press, the 54-year-old said:
“I don’t know what happened to Mario when he was alone in front of Iker Casillas. He probably had two options and in these cases a striker should only have one. He should’ve passed it to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Antonio-Cassano-c6302. I will talk to him and
we’ll see. His booking didn’t worry me more than a little, either. I want my strikers to always give 100 per cent. The substitution? I had already decided to bring on Di Natale before the error, so it was not punishment.”
Di Natale provided Italy with the lead against Spain, but they were pegged back by Cesc Fabregas’ equaliser just three minutes later.
Prandelli stated that it is only natural to be hit on the counter-attack when the team is looking to play an open game, and insisted that it was a shame that Italy got just one point from the match when they could have ended with
three.
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