Mancini unfazed by Italy’s lack of fluidity in win over Turkiye

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Roberto Mancini admitted Italy’s lack of fluidity against Turkiye in the Nations League was to be expected, given the number of changes he made.

Italy rounded off the international break with a 3-1 win over Turkiye, meaning they have now taken seven points across the first four games of Mancini’s second stint in charge.

Aral Simsir cancelled out Gianluca Scamacca’s first-half goal on the hour, but two substitutes secured the victory for Italy.

Riccardo Calafiori soon restored the hosts’ lead, and Francesco Pio Esposito scored the clinching goal with three minutes of the 90 remaining.

Esposito became only the second player in the history of Italy’s national team to score his seventh goal before turning 22, after Giuseppe Meazza (20 years and 155 days on January 25, 1931).

And though Italy did not look their best during the victory, Mancini, who made nine changes to his starting line-up from the draw with France last time out, was not too concerned about the performance.

“Despite the changes, naturally there was also fatigue,” Mancini told RAI Sport.

Three points in the bag #ITATUR #Azzurri #VivoAzzurro https://t.co/l0geHTelab

— Italy (@Azzurri_En) October 5, 2026

“We suffered at the start, but the lads did well to get it back on track, score again after the 1-1, so it was a good game as the fourth in such a short spell of time.

“The only certainty was that we would lose some of that fluidity; it was fully expected and predicted. We also had two players on yellow cards and the referee seemed inclined to book them again, so I took them off.”

Italy sit three points behind leaders France in Group A1, having improved following a 2-0 defeat to Belgium that began their Nations League campaign.

Their final two matches of the group in November will see them host France before travelling to Belgium, with the hopes of reaching the quarter-finals.

“We’ve got to continue like this; we’ll probably have to play for our spot in Belgium,” Mancini added.

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