Following Antonio Conte’s decision to step down from his managerial position around 2 weeks later, the Italian Football Federation announced that Giampiero Ventura was the man selected to replace Antonio Conte and this was confirmed on July 17 of 2016.
So far, Giampiero Ventura has guided the Italian national side to 3 World Cup 2018 qualifiers after facing off with Israel, Spain and Macedonia. Italy overcame Israel with a final scoreboard of 3-1 but they had to settle with a 1-1 draw against Spain.
Their latest 2018 World Cup qualification match was against Macedonia as they locked horns on October 9 and was able to edge out a 3-2 triumph but this victory was extremely fought between both national sides and it actually appeared like it was going to end in a 2-2 draw but a 91st minute from Ciro Immobile was enough for Italy to scrap a triumph.
Andrea Belotti scored the opening goal of the match at the 24th minute but Macedonia responded in the 2nd half by scoring twice through the likes of IlijaNestoroskiand FerhanHasani as they took the lead at the 59th minute.
Ciro Immobile tied the game up 2-2 at the 75th minute and just when it appeared like the encounter was going to end with each national side securing 1 point, Ciro Immobile found the back of the net in the last few moments as he sealed all 3 points for Italy.
Even though Italy did manage to come out on top and won the game, Giampiero Ventura had a few negative things to say concerning his squad as he noticed that his team was making mistakes as the 68 year old manager said:
"For 10 minutes, we stopped being a team, but then we were once again the Italy that everyone knows and we got this result. We made mistakes borne out of inexperience, but that is something you have to accept with a group of young players. It's unlikely that we will keep making these mistakes; all we can do is improve. We have to be ourselves from now on. But with this group of lads, we have the possibility to do well."