Get well soon, Jamie Day
When watching Italy undertake Poland in an essential Nations League fixture in Sunday night, it was hard not to pull a few parallels between the four-time environment champions and Bangladesh, one of the lowest-ranked footballing nations in the world.
This very assertion may appear preposterous to numerous but there, indeed, are quite a few similarities between your two teams, and more particularly their coaches, which are hard to ignore.
Roberto Mancini and Jamie Day time took of the teams only three days and nights apart at the same time when both teams were at the cheapest points within their footballing history. Mancini was given the reign of Italy, who had missed from their first Community Cup qualification in 56 years -- the darkest show for the reason that proud footballing nation's record. Day, alternatively, was appointed by Bangladesh, who had been desperate to emerge from the gloom that acquired engulfed them for the prior two years since a fateful defeat against Bhutan in October, 2016.
Mancini, a fine forward in his working day and perhaps a straight finer manager, lifted the Azzurri from the depths where his predecessor, Giampiero Ventura, had left them at the end of his two-time tenure. The 55-year-old has generated such a strong band of players that the Azzurri happen to be rightly being considered among the favourites for the title in Euro 2020 up coming year.
Day might possibly not have had a professional career much like Mancini's, but as a coach of a good struggling Bangladesh staff, he has made quite the feeling in the last 2 yrs. Results might not have definitely gone in his favour, but the character and the spirit he instilled in the players is definitely commendable.
On Friday, Evening guided his side to a morale-boosting, if not clinical, 2-0 win over Nepal only as Italy, playing with out a host of first-team players and without their trainer in the dug-away on Sunday, cruised past Robert Lewandowski's Poland with a dominant display.
Day could have dearly loved to be in the dugout for today's match too seeing that Bangladesh undertake Nepal again but as things proved, he is in isolation after contracting Covid-19, exactly like Mancini. Sadly, that's where the similarities end.
While a win against lowly Bosnia-Herzegovina on Wednesday will seal a location within the last four of the Nations League for the Azzurri, the trip only gets bumpier for Day's men.
Within a few days, the Bangladesh team will catch a flight to Qatar to take up against the 2022 World Cup hosts in a qualifying fixture on December 4. With another test developing positive yesterday, Day looks certain to lose out on that air travel, but everyone would be praying that the inspirational trainer makes a speedy recovery and become with his charges to guide them through not just that tricky fixture, but many more to come.
