Switzerland remains lucid, they know that they did not do a feat in beating Spalletti’s Italy in the eighth finals. So much so that the captain Granit Xhakabefore focusing on the quarter-final challenge against England next Saturday, says it openly: «I have never seen the Azzurri in such difficulty on the pitch as against uswe won before even taking the field, just like they did with us three years ago at the European Championship. They were scared”.
Azzurri without certainties
From reigning champions to caricatures of champions, the step was not a short one, given that the elimination from the World Cup at the hands of North Macedonia was also involved. But it is particularly striking the merciless point of view of the captain of Switzerlandthe steel soul of Bayer Leverkusen, champion of Germany and finalist of the Europa League against Atalanta: in the unusual climb on the escalator that takes the players from the changing rooms to the pitch at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Italy was already a pale copy of itself.
Without certainties for the umpteenth change of formation and men, without a shred of that spark announced after the goal of the equalizer-qualification by Zaccagni in the last minute against Croatia. This only confirms the “normality” of victory from the Swiss point of view («We are hungrier than ever» Xhaka himself underlines) and the exceptional nature of Italy’s defeat, which played one of his worst games in the modern eraperhaps the worst of all, in a catalogue that grows year after year like a gallery of football errors and horrors.
Italy is afraid
Spalletti and the Federation’s response to an exceptional moment, however, was the usual one, between general problems and specific and laughable alibis such as the great heat in Berlin, which evidently took the Azzurri’s breath away from the kick-off. Xhaka’s words, however, certify that Italy – the one of “We are all number 10s” invoked by the technical commissioner in one of the most sober media and psychological gimmicks, if one considers that before Albania he invoked a team of heroes – it no longer scares anyone at this historical moment. To no one but herself.
