Antonio Conte, head coach of Italy, and Emanuele Giaccherini, the Azzurri's hero of the week, go back a long way.
They were allies at Juventus, fellow achievers through the two seasons when Conte established himself beyond doubt as a coach of the highest class. Giaccherini shared his values, listened sharply to his instructions. Mentor and player were both sad to say good-bye when their paths veered apart.
Giaccherini was Conte's lucky charm once again last Monday, scorer of the first goal in the most important match yet of Conte's spell in charge of the national team, the first in the 2-0 win over Belgium in Group E of Euro 2016.
It was a goal made in pure Conteland, the work of two men in whom Conte has the deepest trust. The long pass came from Leonardo Bonucci, the finish from Giaccherini.
“It was something we had worked on in practice, although it didn’t usually work out that well in training,” admitted the diminutive striker.
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Five summers ago, when Conte, then an up-and-coming coach, took over at a troubled Juventus, where he had been captain, he made Giaccherini one of his first recruits.
The story goes that he had first taken a shine to the player, stocky, small and industrious, having watched him the previous season playing for unfashionable Cesena. Giaccherini had a famous night in September 2010 against AC Milan, the Milan of Ronaldinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He scored a memorable goal in the televised game, and in the Italian press he was dubbed 'Giaccherinho'.
A writer had Brazilianised his surname to emphasise the balance and skill he had shown executing his strike.
“If he was really called Giaccherinho, you’d be constantly saying how skilful he was,” Conte teased reporters after the win over Belgium, a stirring start to the tournament for an Italy who had arrived in France amid pessimism about their potency.
Few would have imagined Giaccherini lighting the fuse that altered the mood. He started last season as a substitute for Sunderland – to whom Juve, to Conte's frustration, sold him in 2013 – in a League Cup tie at Exeter City, and, seeing he was unlikely to see much action for the struggling Premier League club, went on loan to Bologna.
If Conte had his way, his Italy would be even more heavily staffed with players he worked with at Juve.
The loss of the midfielder Claudio Marchisio to injury was a blow. The deep, second-nature understanding that the four Juve men who make the last lines of Italy's defence are his major asset. Gianluigi Buffon, the evergreen in goal, Italy's skipper, was once a playing teammate of Conte's in Turin; he was his captain when Juventus won three successive Serie A titles under Conte's managerial watch up until 2014.
Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini were the two centre-backs when Giaccherini made his Juventus debut, way back in 2011. Bonucci was on the bench, soon to establish himself as the third musketeer of the so-called BBC: Bonucci, Barzagli and Chiellini, the steel girders of a club side who have won the last five scudetti, Italian titles. Bonucci may be the toughest of the three; he is much the finest passer.
It was with reluctance that Conte decided that Andrea Pirlo, the veteran former Juve player, was too far past his best to join Italy for the Euro 2016, but, against Belgium, Bonucci’s brilliant pass from inside his own half was ... well, almost Pirloesque.
Italy take on Sweden in Toulouse on Friday aiming to cement their place in the next round, confident that their formulas work.
“Our recipe is sacrifice and humility,” said Bonucci, “and the secret is that we work hard as a group”.
The Juventus men, past and present, are the core of that group, as one former Juventino, leading Sweden's challenge, will know only too well. Ibrahimovic, the Swedish captain and totem, was once a club colleague of Buffon's.
He was also in the Milan side on the night the first time Giaccherini became Giaccherinho.
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