Ronaldo dice lo que piensa de Ancelotti y de la selección brasileña

El exdelantero Ronaldo Luiz Nazário de Lima expresó su confianza en que el seleccionador de Brasil, el italiano Carlo Ancelotti, logrará ajustar los detalles pendientes para que la Canarinha llegue en óptimas condiciones al Mundial de 2026. "Estoy seguro de que él ayudará a ajustar los pequeños detalles que faltan antes de la Copa del Mundo", afirmó el bicampeón mundial en una entrevista divulgada por la Confederación Brasileña de Fútbol (CBF) tras visitar la concentración del equipo en Orlando, donde Brasil se prepara para un amistoso frente a Croacia.

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Tonight, Italy will face Bosnia in Zenica to return to the World Cup after 12 years, a hugely important match in which the Azzurri will have several ways to trouble their opponents.

At the same time, head coach Gattuso will have to be wary of some of Bosnia’s weapons and avoid certain mistakes that were made against Northern Ireland.

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Take advantage of Bosnia’s 4-4-2 in midfield

Bosnia play in a 4-4-2 with fairly attack-minded full-backs, which has at times become a 4-2-3-1: in any case, they do not tend to sit deep inside their own box. In short, Bosnia press the opposition build-up quite aggressively and mainly defend man-to-man, and that could be one of the keys to the match.

With our 3-5-2 we can exploit the numerical advantage in midfield, or wait for one of their defenders to step out of the line so we can find a through ball into space. In other words, exactly what we lacked against Northern Ireland: in that match only Tonali really tried it and, in fact, those passes led to two dangerous chances.

The man best suited to exploit this situation is Moise Kean, one of the few players, along with Politano and Palestra, who knows how to run in behind, beat his man or create a numerical advantage.

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Try the play = no fear

Our national team has the perfect mix to be a predictable side, at least on paper: a 3-5-2 without players who dribble and without the time needed to create the automatisms required to unsettle opponents (a bit like Inzaghi’s Inter, just to be clear).

That is why it will be crucial to also try the more difficult play, the through pass or holding up the ball for as long as possible (Pio and Retegui style) to wait for midfield runners or shots from outside the box by Tonali and Barella.

If Bosnia instead decide to drop deep into their own area, it will be even more important for individuals to take responsibility. Whatever game plan coach Barbarez goes with, Italy must not repeat the first half against Northern Ireland: less fear and a freer mind.

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Press together and be careful of Bosnia’s pace + crosses

Bosnia’s strengths are certainly the qualities of their forwards: Dedic’s pace (an ultra-attacking full-back), Alajbegovic’s flair (he should start on the bench) and Dzeko’s link-up ability, which can free up space for Demirovic.

To limit those qualities, it will be vital to press in a coordinated way, without individual initiatives that can leave gaps behind. Because one-on-one footraces out wide can be dangerous: Dedic and Alajbegovic have a different engine compared to Dimarco, while Politano is a forward adapted to play wide.

But above all, Edin Dzeko must be limited as much as possible: the all-around playmaker of this national team, who tends to pull opponents out of position and then exploit that to generate the crosses Bosnia so often rely on. In this respect, Italy’s defence must be careful: our problems defending set pieces and aerial balls are concerns we have been carrying for quite some time.

Because conceding early can be mentally fatal and tactically expose all our flaws: the Azzurri do not need to play a beautiful match, nor the perfect match, they need to avoid serious mistakes and, if possible... reach the World Cup.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

The Yankees’ bullpen had been flawless up until the ninth inning of Monday’s ballgame.

With the group a bit shorthanded on the night, Aaron Boone decided to keep the ball in the hands of Paul Blackburn in a tie ballgame heading into the bottom of the ninth.

Blackburn had just put together a scoreless eighth making his first appearance of the season, but the Mariners quickly created some traffic against him leading off the final frame.

Boone was forced to make another decision after a pair of singles put the winning run 90 feet away with just one out.

The skipper decided to have Blackburn pitch to switch-hitting AL MVP runner-up Cal Raleigh rather than walking him to load the bases for the righty Julio Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts on the night, and Raleigh had struck out in his lone at-bat off the bench, as both fight through some early season struggles.

Still, the decision came back to cost the Yanks as the slumping backstop laced a walk-off single on the fourth pitch he saw to give the Mariners the series opener.

Asked about it postgame, Boone said via YES Network that he never considered issuing the intentional walk.

“Then you’re just bringing up no margin for error and a walk in play,” he said. “You got both guys that are struggling out of the gates, and Julio would be almost impossible to double-up so we’d have to bring the infield in in that situation -- we view [Blackburn] as very neutral, and even reverse, so no, there’s was no thought to that.”

In the end, the Yankees' three-game winning streak and the bullpen's 14+ inning scoreless streak were snapped.