Italy coach Luciano Spalletti – REUTERS
The end credits roll of a film unfortunately already seen. Switzerland is still fatal: after cutting us out of the World Cup in Qatar, the Swiss team also eliminates us from the European Championship in Germany. Eighteen years after the World Cup victory, the sky above Berlin is full of black clouds even though the sun shines on the German capital. The Swiss defeated us with Freuler and Vargas (2-0), and sent Luciano Spalletti’s Azzurri home in the round of 16. Zaccagni’s splendid last-second goal against Croatia almost seemed like a divine signal: a goal as beautiful (à la Del Piero) as it was very heavy given that without it we would not have passed the group even as the best third. He had to turn on the light for the Azzurri as we had been assured the day before by the coach and the players. And instead on the pitch we saw an unwatchable team, without bite, soft and imprecise, confused from a tactical and gaming point of view.
A truly irritating first half, with the Swiss starting like a rocket and us on our feet at times unable to even overcome the midfield. The news is a red cross monologue: Darmian falls asleep and keeps Embolo in the game, who sprints on the edge of offside and appears in front of Donnarumma: a crazy save from the Azzurri goalkeeper. But the goal is in the air: assist from Vargas for Freuler, the Bologna director free in the area with a left-footed volley from a few steps past Donnarumma. At the end of the half the Italian number 1 and the post again saved Italy from the Swiss doubling after a poisonous free kick from Rieder. In the second half of the game the music does not change, with Spalletti unable to change the momentum of the match. Not even having time to return from the changing rooms, Vargas receives it at the limit and with all the time in the world directs the ball under Donnarumma’s intersection with a fantastic, unstoppable right-footed shot. Switzerland seems to be giving us a hand when Schar intervenes with a reckless header but the ball ends up on the post. In the final Scamacca sensationally hits the post from one meter after Sommer is beaten but the result does not change and in fact it is the Swiss who come close to scoring a hat trick with Zuber.
And to say that we had a double motivation on the eve: to pass the round, but also to finally take revenge against the Red Cross who had cut us out of Qatar 2022. That second place in the qualifying group which condemned Italy to the playoff (then lost against Macedonia in the semi-final) still stings a lot because it arrived after two direct draws full of regrets, especially for the two penalties missed by Jorginho. The second missed World Cup in a row, in addition to having accelerated the change on the bench (from Mancini to Spalletti), is a wound that remains open: there is a generation of children who have not yet seen Italy at a world championship, given that the The last participation dates back to ten years ago (in Brazil, where, as in 2010, we exited in the first round). Winning the European Championship in 2021 has certainly alleviated the disappointment.
We believed so much in this continental event, also because we arrived as reigning champions. But Spalletti’s team has never convinced: only 60 good minutes in the 2-1 against modest Albania, badly in the defeat against Spain, a little better against Croatia but only towards the end. An Italy without identity went down against a tough but not insurmountable team. It is true, without wanting to find extenuating circumstances, that in the last two calendar years Switzerland has suffered only one defeat but it cannot become our “bete noire”. The fact remains that we didn’t play up to our history. Because with all due respect to the Swiss and despite recognizing their great growth in recent years they cannot boast a trophy case equal to the Italian one (4 world titles and 2 European). For the Swiss, the last prestigious result at the World Cup was the quarter-finals of 1954 and at the European Championships they never went beyond the quarter-finals (in the last edition).
For days we made headlines on the right side of the scoreboard, that Spalletti was the ace in the hole, which then wasn’t. We had a motorway, we said, and instead we stopped again at the Swiss toll booth. A heavy toll that forces us to think about the future. In September there is a Nations League which, as usual, certainly doesn’t warm hearts. Then the mind will necessarily go to the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada: the draw for the qualifying group will be held at the end of the year. But the sky is black above Berlin. They say that the great director Alfred Hitchcock explained: «If you want to make a successful film set in Switzerland, you have to add mountains and chocolate». For us, on the other hand, all we need to do is play football against each other to always create a thriller. And the ending is once again nightmarish.
