Israel Vs Italy, FIFA World Cup Qualifiers: Gattuso Hails Blues’ Spirit After Nine-Goal Thriller

Gennaro Gattuso described Italy’s 5-4 win over Israel as “the craziest game I’ve been involved with as a coach”.

In just his second game in charge of the national team, Italy picked up a vital victory to help them move above Israel in their World Cup qualifying group and into second place.

Italy took a 4-2 lead in the 81st minute through Giacomo Raspadori, but they still required a stoppage-time winner from Sandro Tonali after Israel levelled the scoring in the 89th minute.

Following their 5-0 win over Estonia last week, Italy have now scored five goals in back-to-back matches for the first time in their history.

Although Gattuso conceded that Italy can be too fragile when defending, he praised the desire of his players to continue fighting for the win.

“It was murder today,” Gattuso told RAI Sport and Sky Sport Italia.

“It’s the craziest game I’ve been involved with as a coach, but it is my problem and not that of the players.

“If we want to play in a certain way, we need to get better at this. We were crazy to systematically go on the attack, that’s what Israel were waiting for, they hit us on the counter every time. We could’ve defended deeper when leading.

“We’re a crazy team, because we are too fragile, we concede ridiculous goals too easily. The lads know that, but this is my problem, not theirs.

“We come from a football where it’s about references, but we need to work on being our own team first.

“The lads deserve credit for always reacting to every slap in the face, but it’s undeniable we cannot concede goals as easily as we did today.

“It’s not criticism for our players, me and my staff have to improve and work on that as soon as possible. This is a team that cannot lack solidity.”