Italy’s Euro 2024 came to a disappointing end on Saturday following their 2-0 defeat suffered against an impressive Switzerland side in Berlin.
Remo Marco Freuler, who spent last season on loan at Bologna from Premier League side Nottingham Forest, netted the first goal of the encounter in the 37th minute before Augsburg’s Rubén Estephan Vargas Martínez made it 2-0 in the 46th with a sumptuous finish.
The Euro 2020 champions were ineffective in attack and had just a single shot on target, considering their opponents got four.
At full time, Italian manager Luciano Spalletti said the following:
“The team were timid in terms of the intensity of the game,” he said. “We didn’t do a good job, we weren’t able to maintain a high level of intensity.
“When you are not able to win the ball back, given we don’t possess pace at the back, you have to afford them space.”
Spalletti only had 10 games before the tournament to whip a side that failed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar into shape, only reaching this tournament as runners-up to England in qualifying.
But four games into Euro 2024, and with just a win against Albania and a late draw with Croatia to show for it, Spalletti and Italy’s tournament is over.
And they were. Immediately after the defeat, the 65-year-old was quizzed about whether he believed he could stay on as national team boss.
“That question is only natural, don’t feel guilty about asking me,” he said. “But that comes to the crux of the matter, it doesn’t change anything for me.
“I have the responsibility for what has happened. I picked the players, and of course this is part of a process where I need to get to know players.”
Spalletti’s coaching career began with Empoli in 1993 and has spanned 11 clubs including Roma, Inter and Napoli
Spalletti bemoaned the lack of time he had spent with his squad, compared to other coaches at the tournament, injuries to certain players and even the fact Inter Milan won the title in April.
“Inter won Serie A and then I made sure they are a very professional, serious club because Simone Inzaghi kept training the team in a certain way,” he explained.
“I was in touch with how often Inter were training, but perhaps you are subconsciously not as applied when you have won the league so early.”
After suggesting his pushed his players too hard in training before the draw against Croatia, this time he said he had let them rest and made six changes to his line-up.
“What happened tonight didn’t come down to one single cause,” he added.
‘”But if that is the tempo, if you don’t do something more in terms of tempo and intensity, it becomes a lot harder to compete, and we were under par.”
Five months into his tenure in Naples, unhappy with the job he was doing, Napoli ultras stole his beloved Fiat Panda and said they would only return it if he left the club.
After this defeat, one Swiss journalist took the opportunity to quip whether Switzerland were now the Ferrari and Italy a Fiat Panda.
“You have to accept everything,” said Spalletti. “Even rather tasteless allusions like yours – you are clearly a wonderful exponent of sarcasm, and you are right, what more can you say?
“You did a better job than us, you were worthy winners, and we will try and do a better job next time.”
The Napoli ultras eventually gifted Spalletti his steering wheel back when he guided them to a first title in 33 years, and the veteran does not fear question marks over his national team future this time either.
“When you want to scare me, say ‘now what, now what’.” he added. “I have come under pressure from day one since I decided to become a coach, to make it this far. I am very relaxed in trying to compete at this level.”
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