Giorgio Chiellini believes Italy are on the right track as they prepare for Euro 2012.

The Juventus defender has admitted that the national team initially struggled after the 2010 World Cup, but is confident that they have since made steps forward.

"It has been a gradual growing process. To begin with we struggled a bit because it took a while to shake off the disappointment of our World Cup campaign and we had to turn over a new leaf by introducing a raft of new players," Chiellini stated to Uefa.com.

"But then slowly but surely we began to grow in confidence and believe in ourselves and the new style of football that we were playing. The positive results also helped our cause and gave us the belief that we were on the right track."

Italy start Euro 2012 against Spain on June 10, before taking on Croatia and the Republic of Ireland in Group C.