By Amy Tennery
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Italy are making good use of hard-earned lessons from their disastrous Euro 2022 campaign at the Women’s World Cup, forward Barbara Bonansea said ahead of Saturday’s group-stage showdown against Sweden in Wellington.
Italy opened the European Championship with a demoralising 5-1 defeat to France before finishing in the bottom of their group, a heavy blow three years after an inspiring run to the 2019 World Cup quarter-finals.
“Learn from it – this is what we have done, all of us together, learning from the good things and from the mistakes and now we are here to try to improve at each game,” Bonansea told reporters via an interpreter on Friday.
The team showed their resilience as they survived a tough Argentina test 1-0 in their opener at Eden Park on Monday, courtesy of an 87th-minute header from substitute Cristiana Girelli.
It offered the kind of momentum that can make all the difference in a major tournament, coach Milena Bertolini said, after she learned the hard way.
“In that first (Euro 2022) match we made a lot of mistakes, we suffered a very heavy loss that then impacted our excitement, our confidence for the rest of the tournament… So I think it was the start – it started in a different way,” she said.
Italy got a bitter taste of what Sweden has to offer in a 2022 Algarve Cup meeting, where the third-ranked team beat them in the final in penalty kicks.
Italy, who produced a handful of uninspiring pre-tournament results, expect an equally tough time against the 2003 runners-up on Saturday, as Bertolini called them “the whole package.”
“They never stop. If they are playing well, if they are playing not so well, they keep going,” Bonansea said. “It’s what I’ve noticed. Even if they make mistakes, they just keep going.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Wellington; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
