Longari (SI): “Italy, with the Inter block it wouldn’t have been right to give…”

In his editorial for Sportitalia.com, Gianluigi Longari analyzed Italy’s performance yesterday at Euro 2024 against Spain

In his editorial for Sportitalia.com, Gianluigi Longari analyzed Italy’s performance yesterday at Euro 2024 against Spain:

“Italy’s flop was resounding. Not sensational, because the disparity of forces on the pitch was evident even before the two teams started a contest which, translated from the pitch, meant for the Azzurri a step back of at least 20 years from the point of view of interpretation proposed tactic. Defense and counterattack, not that these were the dictates proposed by Spalletti, but certainly the key to understanding was the one imposed by an opponent who was far more accustomed than us to maintaining control of the ball, of the contest and of the match. Little “stuff” was offered by the national team’s sterile possession, not very incisive and almost disarming compared to the signals that were instead offered in the debut match against Albania. Dribbling limits, but also little organization in a game system that revealed an objective difficulty also resulting from the positioning decided by the Technical Commissioner on the green rectangle of some of the key players in our selection“.

“With a solid block provided by a team like Inter that has dominated the championship and has shown that it can also be competitive in Europe, it would not be appropriate to give at least a chance to that game system (3-5-2) in which do most of the interpreters called essentially express themselves from memory? There will be time to understand it. In the meantime, let’s try to get through the round without believing that the direct elimination phase belongs to us by divine imposition“.