Rome (AFP)

Italy has built its rich football history on an intractable defense.

With Roberto Mancini, it remains solid behind but has never been so carried forward, launched to ensure the knockout stages of the Euro on Wednesday in case of success against Switzerland (9:00 p.m.).

"We wondered for months who would be our center forward and we discovered that we had a trident", noted, not without surprise, the Gazzetta dello Sport on Saturday the day after the inaugural demonstration against Turkey (3-0 ).

Faced with a defense that had extinguished France in the playoffs (2-0, 1-1), the three Italian attackers shone.

Ciro Immobile scored points against his rival for center-forward Andrea Belotti by scoring his first national team goal in his Stadio Olimpico.

Domenico Berardi, on fire on the right wing and involved in the three goals, and Lorenzo Insigne, active on the left and author of the 3-0 to redeem themselves from a great missed opportunity in the first period, also built up confidence .

This reborn Italy does not have stars like Kylian Mbappé, Karim Benzema, Harry Kane, Erling Haaland or Robert Lewandowski in its ranks.

But she has a varied offensive palette, with players turned towards the collective, fluidly alternating sides, redoubling calls, pressing high, including when they are leading.

- "Not let them breathe" -

A question of state of mind: "We always try not to let the opponents breathe, we will take them high," defender Francesco Acerbi explained to the press on Monday.

"Our mentality is to go all together in the opposing half of the field."

A change of era for those who grew up with Italian football fed on "catenaccio", this defensive system born in Switzerland (Wednesday's opponent) but popularized in the Peninsula, with the 1-0 set up as a near perfect score and the World Cups raised by a goalkeeper, Dino Zoff, in 1982, then a defender, Fabio Cannavaro, in 2006 (last Italian Ballon d'Or to date).

With Roberto Mancini, ex-striker who became coach since May 2018, Italy does not forget to defend: it remains in nine matches without conceding any goals.

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But this is no longer its only reason for being: the Nazionale has been a playful team for three years, loving owning the ball and making it circulate quickly forward, not hesitating to attack with five or six players.

Besides the famous "trident", the danger also comes from the perforations of Nicolo Barella, the team's movement accelerator, or the wings with all-terrain side panels.

Against Turkey, it was also the left side of Roma Leonardo Spinazzola who shone, man of the match by UEFA, in a role that played both winger and defender.

- The physical factor -

"When you have these players with such a technical level behind you, you know that the opportunity to score can come at any time," said Andrea Belotti on the UEFA website.

The limit of the Mancini system is that it requires a great deal of energy, to ensure permanent movement.

Much will therefore depend on the management of men and Belotti like Federico Chiesa could have a say.

Against Switzerland, the opponent that Italy has met most often (59th meeting), coach Azzurro must therefore already choose between renewing an almost identical eleven to ensure the eighth (a victory is enough) or start to turn.

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Alessandro Florenzi, released against Turkey (calf), should give way to Giovanni Di Lorenzo or Rafael Toloi.

Marco Verratti, back in training, could return to the squad, five weeks after his knee injury.

For Switzerland there is no question of leaving beaten, assured Tuesday Xherdan Shaqiri: "It is not Italy that tended to defend. They are spectacular. It will be a real challenge, but we will do our best to give them problems, "said the Liverpool player.

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