Rossi: Tactical discipline complemented our fighting spirit

"We know that if this last match had had something riding on it, at least in terms of reaching the playoffs, Poland would have played Lewandowski, and his presence always means a lot to our opponent. They were still very motivated because they wanted to win the match and say goodbye to the fans with a victory", Rossi opined.

“I’m very proud of the guys because we’ve shown that sometimes it’s not the big names that make the difference; sometimes we can be able to achieve great success with the right motivation. We fought for every ball and we came off the pitch with our heads held high because the players showed us how much the national team jersey meant to them.

Despite our many absences and the lack of really high stakes, we were motivated and confident, and played almost perfectly in a tactical sense. After the September matches, I had sensed a lack of this in this area, but now the players did everything the way we planned in detail. I am very sorry about the defeats against Albania, becaue they unfortunately proved to be decisive in this campaign", Rossi admitted.