Mancini: 'Immense Kean potential'

By Football Italia staff

Roberto Mancini backed Ciro Immobile and assured he sees “enormous potential” in Moise Kean after Italy beat Finland 2-0.

Nicolò Barella and Moise Kean scored the goals in Udine for a 2-0 victory, which puts Italy joint top of their Euro 2020 qualifying group with Bosnia and Greece.

“It wasn’t easy, as Finland clammed up straight away with five defenders, so it was difficult to break them down,” the Coach told Rai Sport.

“We made a few mistakes early on, but did far better in the second half and created many more scoring opportunities.”

Immobile fired blanks for the 10th Italy game in a row, but did provide the assist for 19-year-old full debutant Kean.

“When a striker seeks the goal, it doesn’t arrive, so it’ll happen. It wasn’t easy for Immobile, as he always five or six players surrounding him. If anything, we should’ve spread the play better to create spaces.

“Kean has quality, enormous potential and it all depends on him. It’s not difficult to see talent in Kean and Nicolò Zaniolo, so it’s not a risk to pick them.

“We have a lot of work to do, but it’s natural after five months that we’d make a few mistakes. We need to keep working, aware that every match is difficult.”

The Azzurri host Liechtenstein on Tuesday in Parma.

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