Five lessons learnt from the 2013 Confederations Cup

Italy’s national football team poses for pictures after defeating Uruguay 3-2 in the penalty shoot-out of their FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 third-place football match, at the Fonte Nova Arena in Salvador, on June 30, 2013. (Getty Images)

4. Italy will be strong next year

Cesare Prandelli would have liked to be at the finals considering they had the upper hand over Spain for most part of the 120 minutes of the semi-final but they can be satisfied with a bronze at this competition given the circumstances they were in.

The Italians would not have enjoyed the heat and humidity of Brazil and acclimatizing in time would have been a challenge in itself. They were plagued by injury problems and that proved to be a crucial factor.

Italy looked unsure against Mexico but they scraped through and had played a good game against Brazil. They had a huge hand in the battering that Spain received at the hands of Brazil in the final as they added to the mental and physical fatigue of the world champions.

Furthermore, they gave Brazil a tactical template to work with when exploiting Spain’s possession football. They have a number of personnel who proved their critics wrong with improved performances at the event.

Emmanuele Giaccherini and Antonio Candreva blossomed in the latter part of the tournament whereas Mattia De Sciglio proved that he has the potential to become one of the better full-backs in international football.