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Italy coach Gian Piero Ventura said his side had bounced back from last month's heavy defeat to Spain after they sealed a place in the World Cup qualification playoffs. A 1-0 win in Albania on Monday secured their position as one of the four seeded teams, and Ventura said it was a "step forward" for a team whose chance of qualifying directly had vanished with the Spain defeat. The coach told RAI television: "This was the objectives we had set. "I think we have taken another small step forward. In terms of our management of the game we are still throwing away a lot of balls -- 90 percent of their chances were down to banal errors we made -- but I'm happy because you could see we were looking to find a tempo and read the situation. "I'm happy for them because they give me a lot of willingness, and this confirms what I said -- if you want to achieve something, you need to be given the time to do it." Ventura stood alone as his entire bench raced to celebrate with Antonio Candreva following his winning goal, but he said: "I was happy on the inside. "We are a bit limited at the moment with a few players out, but we wanted to do things and you could see that some of them are slowly realising we can achieve a lot. "I hope to have fit players [for the playoffs], otherwise it will be a problem." Defender Giorgio Chiellini told Sky Sport Italia his side would be "against very physical sides from northern Europe, or Greece" in the shootout matches. He said: "They will be two games in the space of about three days which will take a lot of energy out of us. "I think the most important thing was to rediscover that spirit which had allowed us to dream of going all the way in France at Euro 2016 last year. "We may not be [Lionel] Messi or [Cristiano] Ronaldo but, if we can be a team, we can cause everybody problems." Italy have not missed a World Cup since 1958, and midfielder Antonio Candreva told RAI: "It's important for the country and for all of us to go to the World Cup. "We've got to show the spirit of sacrifice and draw on that Italian spirit which sets us apart from the rest."
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