Full speed ahead but in full emergency, especially in defense. Perhaps coach Luciano Spalletti was hoping for a different eve of the eighth finals against Switzerland, which represents the sliding doors of our European Championship: if we pass there is the minimum result achieved, and from then on we play with no or almost no responsibility, if we lose space for predictable processes even beyond the possible demerits of a team that in the first phase only worked intermittently. Fate has reserved an approach full of unknowns for Spalletti, especially in defence.
Dimarco will not be there, definitively out of the game after having recovered for the love of his country against Croatia. Bastoni was put back on his feet in extremis after a feverish attack and Calafiori is suspended. Summary: the defense needs to be redone and this ends up also influencing the choice of tactical outfit to give to the national team after having escaped elimination in the group by returning to the three-man defense of the friendlies on American soil and of the (former) Inter block.
This is why the feeling is that in the end Spalletti will return to his old ways to challenge Switzerland. Four-man defense with Mancini central and Darmian on the left lane, and then two lines of three to try to enhance the characteristics of Chiesa as Scamarra’s support (or Retegui, open ballot) while on the other side there could be the tactical flexibility of El Shaarawy. The big news, however, should be in the middle of the field with Fagioli’s youth preferred to Jorginho’s experience: without beating around the bush, a huge risk that can pay big dividends or even become the subject of a public trial in the event of failure.
Spalletti, however, wants to play the match with Switzerland following his ideas. A little less practicality and muscularity and a little more return to the beauty evoked after the opening match with Albania. Whether he was right or not will be told by the green lawn of the Olympiastadion which for us Italians represents a sort of sacred place having celebrated the 2006 World Cup in Leipzig.
Switzerland is a solid and long-standing opponent. We struggle to consider ourselves not favourites, but it is more the legacy of the past than the current snapshot of the value of the two national teams. The Azzurri didn’t have a performance like the one the Swiss had against Germany. Indeed, the Spanish exam was wrong from top to bottom and that is what transformed the few certainties of the expedition into great doubts. Better to be prudent, in short, so as not to sin of pride. It would be an unforgivable mistake.
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