While some nations may have already narrowed their selections ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Italy is far from that process, says head coach Alessandro (Sandro) Campagna.

The 1992 Olympic champion and coach of the reigning world champion team, was fresh from coaching Italy at last week’s European leg of the FINA World League — a 12-9 loss to Olympic champion Serbia.

The first round of European matches kicked off last week and Italy travelled to Sabac in Serbia and played in front of 2000 people. Serbian head coach Dejan Savic was pleased with the response to his team’s win in the city from the huge crowd. The same happened in Hungary where Gyor received Montenegro. The Greece-Croatia match was staged in Piraeus while the Germany-France match was postponed due to Covid.

Campagna had his selection woes in getting the team to Serbia with “five-six” players contracting Covid-19. However, with a roster of 26-28 players, he had plenty to choose from and it gave him the opportunity to inject new players into the first team. This is the case for many of the teams following mass retirements after Tokyo 2020.

The shortened timeframe for Paris 2024 — a little over two years away — requires a swifter juggling act to get players and combinations working.

Campagna was pleased with the way his team played against Serbia, especially after Serbia raced to 4-1. From then on it was just a one-goal match.

“The match was good. I liked it, even though I had five-six players (Covid) positive I could not put in the roster.

“We missed something, one penalty, a situation in front of the goalkeeper. The result could have been better. Always one or two goals and the game could have been tied.

“The environment was fantastic with 2000 on the side of the pool, which we have not seen for two years. It was a good test for us and I understand what we have to do.”

Funnily enough, Campagna said he thought the problem he had with the team was that it was “much faster than expected”.

He said it was a project to work with the roster of the national team and also with the technical project to use the young players — 18-20 years of age — who won the silver medal at the junior men’s world championships in Prague last year.

“I will use these kinds of matches (FINA World League) to analyse which is the best team for the future.

“I’m very positive with the large number of players and motivation for the world champs and especially for Paris (2024). I believe in two years we will be ready to again be in the top teams.

“There is a lot of passion, a lot of calm and lots of giving 100 percent every game.”

He said most of the squad played for Brescia and Pro Recco and were gaining lots of European matches. “It’s important the work they have to do with the clubs.”

The pandemic stopped play for one month, which was a huge frustration, he said. “It’s not easy. Many players have tested positive and cannot play in Europe. This period is very, very difficult; we have to be flexible in the mind with problems every day.

“Whenever something does not kill you, it will make you stronger,” he said.

“I don’t want to think about the results now but (what they will be) in two years.”

On the pandemic, Campagna said: “I hope this will be the last dramatic winter. I hope next year the situation will be normal because we are losing a lot of young players. Especially in Italy as most of them are private pools, which are closing. No people are going to the pool.

“It is dramatic for the future."