quotes via TuttoMercatoWeb<\/a>, acknowledging that key incidents on the night had worked against the Azzurri while insisting the deeper problems extend far beyond a single match or manager.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f23468c4abc4f0e7a1e34d0301779854.jpeg\"\/)
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MILAN, ITALY \u2013 NOVEMBER 16: Gennaro Gattuso, Head Coach of Italy, looks on prior to the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier match between Italy and Norway at San Siro Stadium on November 16, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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Baresi: \u2018Italian football must do a \u2018mea culpa\u2019, Gattuso not to blame\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cYesterday there were episodes that conditioned the match negatively for our team,\u201d Baresi said, a reference to Alessandro Bastoni\u2019s first-half red card, which left Italy with ten men for the majority of the contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Italy cannot keep arriving at the last stage just to play for qualification. The whole of Italian football must do a mea culpa, because the results of the last twenty years are there for everyone to see, with the isolated exception of the European Championship triumph.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Despite that broad indictment of the system, Baresi was notably protective of Gattuso.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these months he gave everything, his soul, and in my opinion he also did a good job with the little time he had available,\u201d he said. \u201cUnfortunately it was not enough. It is not for me to say whether he should continue, but he is certainly among the least responsible for this defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a sentiment that contrasts sharply with some of the more sweeping criticism aimed at the coaching staff since Wednesday night, and one that reflects a broader view that Italy\u2019s problems are structural rather than the product of any individual failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Franco Baresi has called for Italian football to conduct a collective examination of conscience following the Azzurri\u2019s third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1942,1941,771,1013,5,175,118],"class_list":{"0":"post-2330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-alessandro","9":"tag-baresi","10":"tag-gattuso","11":"tag-italian-football","12":"tag-italy","13":"tag-milan","14":"tag-norway"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}