Interim Italy coach raises eyebrows with eye patches

Italy‘s interim coach Silvio Baldini raised a few eyebrows as he prepared for Sunday’s friendly with Greece.

The national under-21 coach has taken the top job temporarily for two matches after Gennaro Gattuso resigned following their failure to reach the World Cup.

Baldini had already sprung a surprise by handing out debuts to 15 players in Wednesday’s 1-0 friendly win over Luxembourg.

And prior to the trip to Crete, the 67-year-old got his squad to wear eye-patches in training.

The national team’s X account posted footage of the players going through their paces while wearing the unusual eyewear.

Cynics might say the Italians have been playing blindfolded for years, given their failure to qualify for three straight men’s World Cups.

But Baldini saw some positives in their narrow win in Luxembourg thanks to Pio Esposito‘s goal.

“I knew these lads had quality, but also that there were dangers, as many of them were debutants,” Baldini told RAI Sport.

“There were many Italians here showing us how much they love the national team.

“The team created some moves in attack, but is capable of much better. There are some mechanisms that can come naturally at times, but in the first half many of the movements weren’t being made, so it was tough to get into scoring positions.”

The average age of the Azzurri squad is just 20 years and six months, with Manchester City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma the only player born before 2004.

Atalanta winger Marco Palestra has been ruled out of the match against Greece through injury.

Unlike Italy, Greece did not even reach the World Cup play-offs, finishing third in the group topped by Scotland.

Head coach Ivan Jovanovic is coming under some pressure after a run of one win in eight games.

They needed a stoppage-time equalizer from Giorgios Masouras to snatch a 2-2 draw against Sweden on Thursday.

Sunday’s friendly is their final outing before they embark on a tough Nations League group containing Germany, the Netherlands and Serbia.