San Marino’s manager faced Bosnia less than a year ago: “They’re slow but have some standout players. The stadium looks just like Crotone’s Scida.”

“We managed to put them under pressure by playing an excellent game. With 25 minutes to go, it was still 0–0. Dzeko was sitting on the bench in trainers, not wearing his boots. He wasn’t supposed to come on, but then the manager changed his mind. He scored the decisive goal, and it ended 1–0 to them. But in the last minute, we launched a counter-attack and came close to equalising. The crowd cheered at our mistake; everyone was scared. At home, against San Marino, they thought they’d win easily. Instead, they were in trouble. Barbarez came over to congratulate me after the 1-0. He’d appreciated our performance and how hard we’d fought.”

“They’re a slow-moving side, a bit stiff. They play at a slow pace, which works in our favour. In Zenica, I tried to make intensity the key to the match; we pressed high up the pitch and doubled up on the ball-carrier. On the pitch, however, they have some standout players, above all the evergreen Dzeko: a striker the Azzurri defenders know well, Gattuso will know better than I do how to avoid giving him space. He’s 40 and still decisive; he’s the number one threat. In the return leg (which we lost 6-0), I was impressed by the young Alajbegovic. He scored his first international goal against us. He runs, dribbles and is excellent with both feet. He needs to be kept under close watch. However, their play is predictable and they struggle in physical challenges. When we had possession, we moved the ball around a lot, making them run. They don’t have extremely fast players, and their attacking moves are easy to read. Gattuso’s team has clearly superior quality to their opponents, in every respect. The Azzurri have what it takes to win and return to the World Cup after 12 years.”

“Due to the reduced capacity, there will be fewer than the 15,000 fans we saw in the stands back in June. Pjanic had only just left the national team and was honoured before the match. He walked round the pitch to hug the fans; everyone was there for him. You can feel the warmth of the crowd even from the changing rooms, which are actually quite difficult to reach. We were given a changing room on the second floor of the stadium. To get there, you had to climb two very steep flights of stairs. It wasn’t a problem for the players, but it certainly was for the kit men. Carrying all the kit up there, without being able to use the lift, was exhausting. People cheer from the balconies, almost like at the Ezio Scida in Crotone. As a player, I wore the red-and-blue shirt in 2004; the fans would go into the hospital next to the ground to avoid paying for a ticket and support the team from the windows overlooking the pitch.”