Corradini pleased with Italy's start

Italy coach Corrado Corradini drew inspiration from his surroundings at the Imola race circuit as he surveyed the scene after the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship hosts opened their campaign with a 2-1 victory over Russia.

Corrado Corradini
We were playing inside a Formula 1 circuit so I told my players we have just started the engine with this victory and the finish line is still a long way off. The game was exactly how we expected. Russia are very strong physically and we decided to play using our pace on the wings. We made a mistake when Russia equalised, and knowing my team I was sure we were going to face a difficult period after that – I was right.

In the second half we re-organised and played much better. The performance of midfielders Claudia Mauri and Michela Franco was superb because they allowed us to attack with four players and keep our balance. [Laura] Giuliani was superb, too. We have two good goalkeepers, do you want to know when I decided who was going to start? Today at 11.30 I took my pen to write down the lineup and I started with a G without thinking, and I continued writing down Giuliani's name.

Aleksandr Shagov
The game was very good, with chances for both sides. The teams played different tactics but they both played to win. There were many shots on goal, but unfortunately we failed to convert our chances while Italy were more efficient in front of goal. Football is like that; sometimes you score one goal with one shot, sometimes you need ten to score one. However, I'd be worried if we didn't create chances.

I remain positive because we have always done well in tournaments after losing the opening game. Now we'll start studying our next opponents, Belgium. We hope to win but our main goal here remains to enjoy this great tournament.