Gennaro Gattuso reveals what 'surprised' him about Northern Ireland and opens up on stadium decision
Italy manager Gennaro Gattuso admits Northern Ireland’s playing style “surprised” him during their World Cup play-off semi-final showdown – and also feels the decision to host the match at a smaller venue paid off.
In his pre-match press conference, Gattuso stated his belief that Northern Ireland would “pump the ball into the box” and highlighted how long balls are their “primary characteristic” – comments which Michael O’Neill insisted he had given “no consideration”.
While Northern Ireland provided a threat from set-pieces – Justin Devenny’s early corner narrowly evaded Ruairi McConville – they also posed a problem at times in open play with Ethan Galbraith breaking free after 20 minutes.
Gattuso’s side, who sit 57 places higher in FIFA’s world rankings, were overwhelming favourites to seal progression but had to navigate their way past a disciplined Northern Ireland team.
“Aside from the pressure, we also made a mistake in the first half with (Manuel) Locatelli sitting too deep, we ended up with (Gianluca) Mancini acting as a full-back, which was not what we had prepared at all,” said Gattuso. “We needed to bring their midfielders forward and look for our strikers, but instead we kept passing it down the right for (Matteo) Politano to take his man on, occasionally on the left, but not enough.
“Northern Ireland surprised us too, as we expected them to be far more vertical, but they did try to pass it around.
"After 15-20 minutes, we realised that and moved better. Our mentality and our tactics in the first half were not what we wanted.”
Rather than host the crucial fixture at the famous San Siro in Milan, which has a capacity of around 75,000, Gattuso made a decision to stage it at the New Balance Arena in Bergamo – the home of Atalanta which holds 25,000.
The Italian legend feels that choice was vindicated and believes more fans would have added to the pressure his side were under as they look to end a 12-year World Cup wait.
“If you noticed, I was very calm in the first half,” he added. “I was angry too, because for long spells we didn’t do what we had prepared.
"I explained we needed to go for the strikers and not sit so deep. We did much better after the restart, I realise these are games where you feel the tension and what is at stake.
“The decision to come here in a smaller stadium was also wise, because if we’d been in a bigger place with 70,000 in the stands, trust me that a good 30% would have started jeering at half-time.
"Instead, we did well to pick Bergamo, the fans helped us and they were fundamental in not putting more pressure on my players.”