Italy striker Giacomo Raspadori is the latest player to speak in front of the media ahead of Thursday night’s huge Group B encounter against Spain in Gelsenkirchen.
After both countries got off to winning starts, matchday two between the old adversaries, is seen as the pivotal game of the group with the winner, if there is one, qualifying for the round of the last 16.
Raspadori was an unused substitute in the Azzurri’s narrow 2-1 win over Albania last weekend, but he remained upbeat about his chances of featuring in the competition at some stage.
When asked how Italy could hurt Spain on Thursday, Raspadori stated that;
“There are several things we can hurt them on, we have to focus on what we have to do. They made an excellent debut, but we have to focus on ourselves, we know our value and we have all it takes to be able to hurt them.”
Spain’s dismantling of Croatia in their opening match was probably the best performance so far of any team at this year’s championships and it made many people sit up and take notice. Raspadori however, assured reporters that Italy were more than aware of the danger they posed and that they had plan in place;
“When we win the ball back we have to be able to clean it, make it safe and create opportunities. They will try to catch us unprepared and then try to score.”