Zidane ready for France-Italy at the Stade de France: "I want to win the first in front of our fans"

For Zinedine Zidane the day he has dreamed of for 20 years has arrived, the one in which he can return to lead Les Bleus against Italy. A conversation interrupted with that headline "which I am not proud of and which I cannot forget, also because the images always come to remind me of it". On the eve of the third match of his career as France coach, after Türkiye and Belgium comes the team that has marked his footballing life, for better or for worse. And he returns to the stadium where - he doesn't forget this either - he won the 1998 World Cup by scoring two goals against Brazil. "For me that gesture in the 2006 final was the end - recalls Zizou - and it was very, very difficult. But I believe in life, in the positive of what I do, and I have prepared to come back and coach France. I want to do everything I can for this team, for the players. We want to continue writing our pages of history for France in this stadium."

The Stade de France is sold out, tickets for France-Italy were sold out in a few hours, just like two years ago at the Parc des Princes, when Luciano Spalletti's Azzurri unexpectedly overwhelmed Les Bleus in the Nations League with three goals from Di Marco, Frattesi and Raspadori. "Italy - says Zidane - has teams that, in a match, can always do incredible things, tomorrow it will be a complicated match to play. Italy is a good team, they lost against Belgium then won very well in Turkey, we will have to do our best to get the 3 points, for us it is the most important thing". He knows that, after two victories in Türkiye and Belgium, the appointment everyone is waiting for is this, his first ever match in "his" Stade de France as a coach. "We are ready for this third match, we have prepared well. And we want to win our first match in front of our fans. This is what counts, the rest has nothing to do with it, at least I am dedicating myself to this now."

Look forward, Zinedine Zidane, and has learned, if not to smile, not to get angry if someone takes him back to bad memories, back 20 years: "I'm not proud of what I did in that final - he repeats several times - but in life you do good things and less beautiful things. Now everything is different. And I wouldn't be here if I were afraid of not succeeding, in my career I have learned to never think about defeat or the worst moments. Which, in fact, I come to consider today rather as an opportunity I had. I prepared for a long time to be here today: three years of preparation to become a coach, then I coached for three years in Madrid with many great players, one 'almost' perfect (he smiles, ed.). Now I'm ready and I think positively."