{"id":946274,"date":"2026-03-11T12:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T12:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/?p=946274"},"modified":"2026-03-11T12:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T12:21:15","slug":"italy-winner-never-talked-gattuso-real-fear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/italy-winner-never-talked-gattuso-real-fear\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy Euro winner ‘never talked’ to Gattuso, World Cup play-off fear ‘is real’","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

Bologna winger Federico Bernardeschi says he \u2018never talked\u2019 to Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso and admits fear of World Cup play-off is \u2018real\u2019 but \u2018it must not turn into a phobia.\u2019<\/p>

The World Cup play-offs are just around the corner, with Italy hosting Northern Ireland in the semifinals in Bergamo on March 26.<\/p>

Bernardeschi, a Euro 2020 winner, is not expected to be part of the team that Gennaro Gattuso will release next week.<\/p>

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Bernardeschi: World Cup play-off fear should \u2018push you to raise the bar\u2019<\/h2>

\u201cI\u2019ve never talked to him, except when he visited Serie A clubs, and we exchanged a couple of words,\u201d Bernardeschi said in the second part of his interview with Gazzetta via TMW.<\/a><\/p>

Italy have already been knocked out of the World Cup play-offs in 2018 and 2022.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a real fear, and it\u2019s right that it exists, but it must not turn into a phobia,\u201d said the experienced winger.<\/p>

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\u201cIt should push you to raise the bar, so you\u2019re ready to compete. The entire external environment needs to start helping, because it\u2019s something that belongs to all of Italy.<\/p>

\u201cIt seems to me that people almost take pleasure when the Azzurri do badly, and that\u2019s an ugly thing. They can\u2019t wait to say you aren\u2019t good enough and judge you after just two matches.\u201d<\/p>

When asked to pick two wingers for the Azzurri, choosing among him, Domenico Berardi, and Mattia Zaccagni, Bernardeschi replied,\u00a0\u201cThe Euros champions,\u201d which means he and Berardi.<\/p>

\"BOLOGNA,
BOLOGNA, ITALY \u2013 FEBRUARY 23: Federico Bernardeschi of Bologna FC celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Serie A match between Bologna FC 1909 and Udinese Calcio at Renato Dall\u2019Ara Stadium on February 23, 2026 in Bologna, Italy. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>

During the same interview, Bernardeschi revealed that he could have joined Atalanta before signing for Toronto FC in 2022, admitting that his decision was mostly driven by money.<\/a><\/p>

Bernardeschi returned to Serie A last summer, joining Vincenzo Italiano at Bologna.<\/p>

A former Fiorentina and Juventus star, Bernardeschi has grabbed five goals and one assist in 32 appearances across all competitions.<\/p>

\"Bernardeschi\"<\/p>","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bologna winger Federico Bernardeschi says he ‘never talked’ to Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso and admits…<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":102,"featured_media":926598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,16,41482,4,41484,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-946274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-azzurri","category-bologna","category-italy","category-news","category-newsnow","category-serie-a"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/icdn.football-italia.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Gennaro-Gattuso-shout.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946274"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":946276,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946274\/revisions\/946276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-italia.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}