{"id":592435,"date":"2026-04-09T12:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592435\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T12:13:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T12:13:15","slug":"calafiori-channels-pain-of-italy-world-cup-misery-to-fuel-arsenal-trophy-push-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/592435\/","title":{"rendered":"Calafiori channels pain of Italy World Cup misery to fuel Arsenal trophy push | Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

After everything Riccardo Calafiori has been through over the past couple of weeks, Tuesday night was exactly what he needed. The Italy defender was still buzzing from Kai Havertz\u2019s late winning goal<\/a> against Sporting in the first leg of Arsenal\u2019s Champions League quarter-final when he reflected on a fortnight during which his club suffered successive defeats either side of the <\/a>Azzurri<\/a> again failing to qualify for the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been tough, but that is the beauty of football: it is 100% better now,\u201d Calafiori said, before reflecting first on Saturday\u2019s shock FA Cup loss at Southampton<\/a>, then on the wider pain of the period. \u201cThis chance to play three days later rather than just stay home and think about it [was welcome]. Of course I\u2019m really disappointed, but I\u2019ve got a lot to play for with Arsenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether Italy missing out on the World Cup for the third time in a row had given him more desire to succeed at club level, he said: \u201cMaybe in a way, yes. But I\u2019m still really disappointed and sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Sporting pushed hard towards the end at a lively Est\u00e1dio Jos\u00e9 Alvalade, the prospect of Calafiori being on the losing side again was looming large. Had it not been for the heroics of David Raya<\/a>, who produced three world-class saves before Havertz delivered the coup de gr\u00e2ce in injury time, Arsenal could have succumbed to a third loss in a row, in three competitions in 17 days.<\/p>\n

The talk of doom and gloom narrative that has been steadily building since the Carabao Cup final defeat by Manchester City<\/a> would have surely reached deafening levels. Mikel Arteta demanded his players \u201crediscover their identity\u201d, and Calafiori was delighted with the way Arsenal responded before they host Bournemouth on Saturday in their first Premier League fixture since they beat Everton<\/a> on 14 March. That is an opportunity to stretch their lead at the top to 12 points before City travel to Chelsea on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a clear demonstration of our identity, which maybe we lost a little bit in the last couple of games,\u201d Calafiori said. \u201cBut we came back as I like. I recognise my team again. It\u2019s a nice game to come back and now we can enjoy it, but we are already thinking about Saturday. Every game is really important now.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Raya was crucial to Arsenal\u2019s 1-0 win against Sporting. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Raya has kept seven clean sheets in Arsenal\u2019s 11 Champions League<\/a> games and saved 27 of the 30 shots he has faced \u2013 by far the best record in the competition. Havertz described the Spain goalkeeper as the best in the world after the win against Sporting and Calafiori believes Raya\u2019s return in place of Kepa Arrizabalaga, after being rested against City and Southampton, engendered confidence in the defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good relationship with him and I think he\u2019s going to help us through until the end of the season,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have played a lot of games [together] and I feel really secure with him. With his feet and in the goal, his reflexes are unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fallout from Italy\u2019s World Cup campaign continues after Gennaro Gattuso stepped down as manager<\/a> last week. But Calafiori insisted the negativity directed at Arsenal since their quadruple hopes ended had not affected him. \u201cIt\u2019s obvious that it\u2019s a massive club with so much history that they love to speak about us,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t change anything for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After everything Riccardo Calafiori has been through over the past couple of weeks, Tuesday night was exactly what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-592435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}