The elimination of Italy at the 2024 European Championships it hurts, especially for how it happened. For the little play that was seen (let’s say zero) and for the fact that Switzerland, even if a good team, is certainly not a big one. The coach Luciano Spalletti in the post-match press conference he assumes his responsibilities. But at the same time he tries to explain why in his opinion things went so badly.
“We were below par in terms of pace, at team level. We suffered from some individual differences in terms of legs. If the pace is like this here it becomes difficult to talk about anything else. In the previous match I said that I probably hadn’t let them recover and bring freshness. This time the ‘I did but then in terms of intensity it was the same match and we were lower than the opponent’.
In his partial defense, Spalletti reels off some numbers: “All the other coaches have had 20 games, others 30, I had 10 and we were already with our guns pointed. I need more direct knowledge to be able to get the best, there were several injured players on whom I was counting. We were inferior in terms of intensity and Switzerland qualified in the right way”.
Spalletti knows well that in a country like Italy the number one target is and always will be the coach. As, after all, already happened in the days of Bearzot in 1982, who then won the World Cup in Spain. And just imagine what can happen if someone doesn’t win but is eliminated (and in this way). When asked what he will say to the president of the FIGC Gravina, he calmly answers: “The responsibility what happens is always the coach’s, the choices are mine. I’ll talk to Gravina, we’ll hear what we have to say. I am responsible for the game and the results.”
The coach answers an ironic question from a Swiss journalist who compared Murat Yakin’s (Swiss coach) national team to a Ferrari and Italy to one Panda. “You have to accept everything, even tasteless allusions like yours, you understand that you are a person of great irony and quality and we tell you that you are right. You were better than us, you deserved to win and we will try to do better next time, since we did not engage you”.
Spalletti’s analysis of the Azzurri block is relentless. “We don’t have many players who have running quality within the circle of those we have identified, the difference is the freshness when you win the ball back. We need to find characteristics in players that we lack. If it’s the best we can express as Italian footballers? I do not know. I don’t have much time to go and make acquaintances. The other previous coaches almost all had 20 games to gain knowledge and tests. In my opinion, a few more games could have helped me. There is a big difference between what I had available to me compared to others.”
You also learn from defeats. Spalletti is aware of this. “This elimination gives us some indication that there are some things we need to change, it takes more speed beyond the quality of the game. This makes the difference. We must do more, there are things that absolutely need to change.”
We’ll see if he or another coach will change things. Let’s say that Spalletti may have made a mistake, but what did the players on the pitch do?
Donnarumma: “We apologize”
Everyone agrees on one detail: the best Azzurri player at the European Championships was Gigio Donnarumma. Here’s what the national team goalkeeper said to Rai’s microphones after the match had just ended. “Going out like this hurts, really hurts. We apologize to everyone. Today we disappointed, they deserved it. Everything was missing: courage, quality. We struggled throughout the match except at the end. We should have done it earlier, we lost too many balls and left them too much space.
It’s a very hard match to digest, but that’s how it happened and we have to accept it. In the first half we did badly, they always had the ball in the game. In the second we conceded a goal straight away and it became even tougher.”
