Zoff condemns Italy celebration video: ‘I’d have behaved differently’
1982 World Cup winner and former CT Dino Zoff is one of the latest stars to condemn the viral video clip that showed a handful of Italy players celebrating Bosnia and Herzegovina’s penalty shoot-out victory against Wales in their World Cup play-off semi-final, but says that he is ‘optimistic’ that the Azzurri will still qualify for the final tournament.
Italy beat Northern Ireland 2-0 in Bergamo in Thursday’s World Cup play-off semi-final, while Bosnia defeated Wales after a penalty shoot-out in Cardiff just over half an hour later.
As Italy got the job done in regular time, the players were already back inside and watching along on screens as Kerim Alajbegovic converted the winning spot kick at the Cardiff City stadium.
Footage of the Italy players’ reactions, focusing on Federico Dimarco, Guglielmo Vicario and Pio Esposito, were shown on Rai’s live TV broadcast in Italy and the clip has since been shared thousands of times on social media.
Dimarco and Vicario were seen pumping their fists and patting each other on the backs as Bosnia eliminated Wales, and while their exact motivation remains unclear, there were accusations of ‘disrespect’ and ‘arrogance’ and concerns that the footage has only served as an additional bit of motivation for the Bosnia squad heading into Tuesday’s play-off final.
Dimarco has since come out in a press conference and has insisted that he meant no disrespect by his actions, and claimed that he and his teammates can’t be arrogant given that Italy haven’t qualified for the World Cup for 12 years.
Zoff on Italy’s celebration video and chances of qualifying for the World Cup
“I’m optimistic: Italy will get to the World Cup,” said legendary former Italy and Juventus goalkeeper Zoff in an interview with Il Giornale. “It was important to win against Northern Ireland. Two goals were enough, even if they didn’t shine.”
Zoff was asked for his opinions on the now infamous clip of Dimarco and Vicario celebrating Bosnia’s penalty shoot-out victory.
He said: “It’s an attitude that I didn’t like. It wasn’t a positive given that it will fire up the opponents even more ahead of the challenge against us. I would have behaved differently.”
Zoff went on to express his excitement at the qualities that Inter forward Pio Esposito has to offer.
“I like him a lot. He has great potential and could play for the national team for many years. He’s impressed me a lot, not only from a technical point of view, but from every angle. Pio’s a strong player and his behaviour on the pitch is already very mature as well, despite his age.”
But, there is another striker that Zoff thinks will score the goal that takes Italy to the World Cup.
“I’d say Kean. I thought he did very well against Northern Ireland and scored a very good goal.”
