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Casiraghi riding Italian wave

Coach Pierluigi Casiraghi said "it doesn't get much better than this" after his Italy side reached the UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals.

Coach Pierluigi Casiraghi said "it doesn't get much better than this" after his Italy side reached the UEFA European Under-21 Championship finals.

Dramatic win
The former Juventus and S.S. Lazio striker, who made 44 appearances for Italy's senior team, led his side to a dramatic 2-1 win against Spain in Palencia last night to make up for a goalless draw in the first leg of the tie on Friday, and was delighted to have booked the Azzurrini's place in next summer's finals in the Netherlands.

'No mistakes'
"It doesn't get much better than this," said the 37-year-old, who replaced Claudio Gentile as coach back in July. "It was not an easy game and it was not easy to win in a stadium with such a lively atmosphere. The lads, however, were great and made no mistakes for the whole 90 minutes. They have been working very hard during the week. I warned them that it would be a difficult match especially from the mental point of view and they understood completely which approach they had to use."

Sad for Spain
With the two sides locked together so long at 0-0 in the course of the tie, Casiraghi expressed sympathy for Spain, saying: "Over the course of the 180 minutes our qualification was well deserved but honestly I'm very sad for Spain. Italy and Spain both deserved to play in the finals." With the truncated qualifying campaign now at an end, the coach said he was now looking forward to taking time to work with his team for their trip to the Netherlands. "So far we have had to do everything in a rush because we have had so many important games in quick succession, but now we can calm down a bit a start to work for the finals," he said.