Nuccorini's debt to Azzurri fans

'Great job'
"I'm very satisfied with the performance of my players especially because they took nothing for granted until the final whistle of the last game,” said Nuccorini, who masterminded Italy’s 2003 triumph and also led them to the FIFA Futsal World Cup final in November 2004. “It takes nothing to waste the work of several months but we did a great job in this tournament."

Fans pack arena
The enthusiasm of the fans in Martina Franca was a key factor. With the Palazzetto dello Sport packed for every Azzurri game, the Italian Football Federation had to assemble a big screen outside the venue to allow fans without tickets to watch the decisive 6-1 victory against Belarus, following a 12-1 defeat of France and 8-2 win against Turkey, the final game featuring an Adriano Foglia hat-trick,and two Sandro Zanetti goals to take his tournament tally to seven. "Our greatest advantage, however, were the fabulous fans in Martina Franca," Nuccorini said. "They gave us great support in every game we played here and I can never thank them enough for their help."

'We can compete'
Italy will find out their final tournament opponents on 12 May, with hosts Portugal, Spain, Russia, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Ukraine also involved in Porto between 16-25 November. "We have qualified for this great tournament in Portugal with the best teams in the continent," Nuccorini said. "Taking part in such tournaments and facing the best teams is our main goal. We know it will be very difficult but we also know we can compete with every team if we play with the same determination we had in Martina Franca."