Roberto Mancini has succeeded with stage one of his mission to bounce back from failing to qualify for the last World Cup by sealing Italy's place at Euro 2020 with Saturday's 2-0 win over Greece that pushed their perfect qualifying run to seven matches.
In November 2017, headlines spoke of an 'Apocalypse' after the four-time world champions missed out on a World Cup for the first time since 1958 following playoff defeat to Sweden.
However on Sunday the Gazzetta Dello Sport gave the national side "Green light" after they qualified for next summer's tournament in front of 60,000 fans at Rome's Stadio Olimpico, wearing green for just the second time since 1954.
"Dear Europe, here we are!" added Turin daily Tuttosport.
Previous coach Gian Piero Ventura, largely seen as an uninspiring replacement for Antonio Conte who dragged Italy to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, took the brunt of the blame for the failure almost two years ago.
But the problems ran deeper, with the 2006 World Cup winners also exiting in the group stages of the South Africa and Brazil tournaments.
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Former Italy international Mancini took over in May 2018 with the task of rebuilding a demoralised team around a new generation, with the ageing heroes of Berlin bowing out.
And in front of a 60,000-crowd in the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday night Italy advanced with three games to spare to a multi-host tournament they are kicking off on June 12 in Rome.
"I feel very proud, because it was not a good situation when I arrived," said 54-year-old Mancini.
"I tried to make the players believe in themselves, when everyone else said Italy didn't have good quality players."
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"We have a lot of work to do, but we're not far off the best European teams."
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