Veteran Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci says he is concerned about the pace of England's attack in Sunday's Euro 2020 final and joked that it will test the "youth against the old" for him and defensive teammate Giorgio Chiellini. Will be
Bonucci (34) and Chiellini (36) will have the tough task of limiting in-form England strikers Harry Kane (27) and Raheem Sterling (26).
"Youth against the old," said Bonucci with a smile. "We're not looking for Kane right now, it's been years that he's been doing a good job with Tottenham, England.
"In the last three games we have been fortunate to come up against three of the best strikers in the world [Romelu Lukaku of Belgium, Alvaro Morata of Spain and now Kane]. It's just an added motivation that we don't believe in anything.
"They have very strong forwards, we will need to be very careful with them, the defense and the whole team. We know what challenges they can present for us and we have to be careful about their pace."
Bonucci said Italy was not afraid to take on hosts England at Wembley. England won the 1966 World Cup at home but have yet to lift a Continental Cup. Around 60,000 fans are expected to attend the final, but most of them will be English fans as UK travel rules require 10 days of quarantine for arrivals from Italy.
"Playing at their home doesn't scare us," said the Juventus centre-back. “We are only thinking about playing football and having fun. The rest is just bullshit. On the pitch will be the best show for European and world football from Italy, England and the referees.
"We are looking forward to getting on the field, although most of the fans present will be English. We want to do something historic, put on a great performance and then we'll see how it ends."
Azzurri, who reached the title after beating Spain in a penalty shootout, is looking to clinch his second European title. Chiellini and Bonucci know what it is like to lose the European final as they are the only remaining players for Italy to lose the 2012 title to Spain.
Roberto Mancini took over as Italy's coach in 2018 after a failure to qualify for the World Cup, and Bonucci believes former Lazio and Internazionale tactics have brought back his appetite.
"Mancini pushed us from day one," Bonucci said. "There we felt everyone's desire to start all over again."
In the meantime, Mancini says learning to adapt and not always expecting to dominate the games is the key to Italy reaching the final.
"If you want to reach the end of a tournament like this, you know you have to adapt to different conditions," Mancini said. "You can't think that you're going to win a World Cup or a European tournament that dominates. There are sports in which you can suffer because other teams are stronger.
"There are moments during a game in which things don't go according to plan because your opponents are doing things you didn't think they would. We are the ones who have to build the pressure against England. We are a strong group. We are facing, physically and technically strong, a team that fights. We have to fight till the end."