After Antonio Conte guided Italy to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals last Tuesday, his former Azzurri team-mate Alessandro Costacurta has hailed the incoming Chelsea manager as the “best coach in the world”, Goal reports.
Italy have made their way back to become one of the Europe’s best national sides, despite being criticized for their lack of unity and team morale in the past few years.
Ahead of tonight’s crucial clash against Joachim Low’s Germany, the AC Milan and Italy legend Costacurta has opened up about his appreciation for Conte, who has already been able to convincingly lead the Azzurri to tactically mastered victories over Belgium and Spain in the competition.
The most important thing is the coach. The coach is, for me, the best coach in the world and I think it’s showing in Euro 2016.
Entering the Euros, the team was not so united, not so organised. After two or three training sessions I think the team improved.
It’s about Conte, because the players are not so good, they are not world class players, so the coach he is. For me Conte is the best in the world.
Conte has been praised by his strict and effective defensive tactics, which have resulted the team into fantastic results in the competition. Italy have only conceded one goal during Euro 2016 in a 0-1 loss to Ireland, when the team had already qualified to the round-of-16.
Italian coaches are always speaking about tactics, it’s our quality in Italy. We know the defensive way, but Conte brings something new about the offensive way.
Against Belgium, against Spain we were good in transition with [speed], with players always going in the box. It’s something new for Italian people, for Italian football.
