Riccardo Calafiori admits that Italy were ‘not convincing at all’ in their 2-0 defeat at home against Belgium in Roberto Mancini’s first game back in charge on Friday night, as the Azzurri face continued criticism after a nightmare calendar year.

Goals from Mika Godts and Dodi Lukebakio provided Belgium with a 2-0 victory at the Stadio Olimpico in the first round of 2026-27 Nations League fixtures, which leaves Italy at the bottom of their group, which also contains France and Turkiye.

This was Mancini’s first game in charge of the Italy national team after returning to the role of CT as a replacement for Gennaro Gattuso, who resigned following the failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup earlier this year.

Newspapers in Italy wrote on Saturday morning that Italy are ‘stuck in Zenica’, referring to the nightmare evening against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup play-off final back at the end of March.

Calafiori, speaking in a post-match interview with DAZN, agreed that Italy’s performance was not good enough on the night.

He felt that the Azzurri had their moments in the game, but that the final result was ‘not convincing at all’.

“As I mentioned, it was clearly not enough,” said the Arsenal defender after full-time.

“As I said before, I think we had some moments in the game that we looked like a good team, a strong team, but again, it’s not enough. If you look at the result, it’s not convincing at all.”