Conte hails Azzurri spirit

Boss Antonio Conte believes the spirit within the Italy camp will help them make a big impact at Euro 2016.

Goals from Emanuele Giaccherini and Graziano Pelle saw the Azzurri open their campaign with an impressive 2-0 win over Belgium on Monday and they are now the favourites to top Group E.

A perceived lack of quality has seen Conte’s squad written off in recent months but his players showed just how potent they could be in Lyon, as they turned in a cohesive performance. In contrast, the Belgians, who have been lauded for the individual talent within their ranks, looked disjointed and lacked direction in what was a lacklustre display.

Next up for Italy are Sweden on Friday, a game they are 1.83 to win, with the draw 3.30 and their opponents 4.50.

Although Conte insists his side are not looking past Group E, for which they are now 1.22 to top, he believes the unity and spirit they showed in Monday’s win demonstrates they have every chance of reaching the latter stages of the tournament.

“I’ve been repeating from the beginning – and I’m not one to tell lies – that this is a group first and foremost of men, and then footballers,” Conte told UEFA.com. “That’s important because in a tournament like this you need an alchemy of people who get on well together, and the biggest satisfaction for me tonight is to see how happy they all were, including those on the bench.

There’s a very good spirit in this squad. “We have big intentions and our objective remains the same, to get into the last 16. The objective is to get where we deserve to be, without any regrets.”