Jorginho after dramatic Italy equaliser: ‘The beauty of football’ | OneFootball

Jorginho admits an Italy equaliser seven seconds from time against Croatia was ‘the beauty of football,’ but ‘at this level you can’t rest for a second.’

The Arsenal midfielder was one of the players expecting to be dropped today, but instead he was the core of a new tactical system.

It was a dramatic night, as after Gianluigi Donnarumma saved Luka Modric’s penalty for a Davide Frattesi handling offence, Modric scored moments later and was about to secure second place in Group B.

That is until substitute Mattia Zaccagni’s sensational right-foot curler deep into stoppages at the 98th minute to ensure Italy drew 1-1 and will face Switzerland in the Round of 16.

“This is the beauty of football, when you see things are tough, but you keep believing, you believe in your teammates and keep fighting, you never give in and finally are repaid. The hard work of the team was behind what happened and everyone deserves the credit,” Jorginho told Sky Sport Italia.

“We can always improve and right now I think we should enjoy this result, this special moment, as these situations need to be relished. From tomorrow we will sit down and see what to work on, but we are happy to see our fans happy.”

Jorginho on Italian tactical issues

The Azzurri used a 3-5-2 formation at the start, which saw them more balanced, but again far too slow moving the ball around.

“We had more control in the first half, made a few mistakes playing out from the back and situations where we could’ve hurt them,” confessed Jorginho.

“That is something we need to work on. At this level, you cannot rest your eyes for a second, we first allowed a penalty and then a thoroughly avoidable goal.

“We fought back with pride, kept pushing and pushing and pushing, until the result arrived.”

Luciano Spalletti was furious with the players for not taking enough risks and making basic errors.

“We weren’t content to just keep the ball, we were trying to move them out of position. The problem is that when we came to make vertical passes, we misplaced them and got things technically wrong.”