'Zielinski chased me around the pitch' – Jorginho has last laugh in Italy draw

The Chelsea man saw his counterpart open the scoring in Poland’s 1-1 draw against Italy and his former Napoli team-mate was never too far away

Jorginho was glad to have shaken Piotr Zielinski by the time he secured a 1-1 draw for Italy at home to Poland in the Nations League.

Roberto Mancini’s Italy were playing their first game since watching the 2018 World Cup from a distance and fell behind when in-form Napoli midfielder Zielinski profited from a Jorginho error and slammed home Robert Lewandowski’s 40th-minute cross.

Zielinski had already drawn a sharp save from Gianluigi Donnarumma by that stage but his defensive work, seeking to disrupt former club colleague Jorginho’s playmaking from deep, also caught the eye and irritated the recipient.

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The 24-year-old made way for Karol Linetty midway through the second half and in the 78th minute Jorginho nonchalantly dispatched a penalty after Jakub Blaszczykowski brought down Federico Chiesa.

“Zielinski chased me around the pitch the whole time and wasn’t really paying attention to the rest of it,” the Chelsea midfielder told Rai Sport.

“In the second half he came out because he could not take it anymore and those who replaced him continued to play only on me.

“When you have a man who does not watch the game and only looks at you, you can only try to make room for your team-mates.

“I tried to talk, to give directions to my team-mates about how to move on the field. It was not the best game, but we have to be calm and keep playing.”

Jorginho again unfurled the skip-step penalty technique he used to open his Chelsea account against Huddersfield Town last month, doing so nervelessly.

“I had zero fear. I was confident. I knew the team needed to equalise,” he added.

“If you go there with fear, you’ve got more chance of making a mistake.”