Italians, no stallions!

Italy coach Luciano Spalletti rues team’s lack of physicality and tempo as defending champions are knocked out after 0-2 defeat to Switzerland

Italy coach Luciano Spalletti said his team had to make significant changes after Switzerland dumped the holders out of Euro 2024 2-0 on Saturday in their last 16 match. Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas’s goals earned the Swiss a first win over the Azzurri since 1993 as the Euro 2020 winners were completely outplayed. “We need players with more physicality, when you think you can play with your quality... but you lose intensity, it’s only natural that you need to mix things up,” Spalletti told reporters.

“What happened tonight did not come down to one single cause... if you don’t do more in tempo and intensity, it’s hard to even compete on an even footing. We were under par in terms of intensity. Tonight I made six changes [to the line-up] because I wanted to allow the players to be fresh, but the tempo was the same,” Spalletti added.

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Switzerland’s Ruben Vargas celebrates his goal against Italy in Berlin on Saturday

Despite saying his squad lacked pace, Spalletti took responsibility for the defeat. “There’s no blame on anyone, I want to stress this,” said the 65-year-old. “The responsibility is mine, I’m always on the side of the players, I thank them for having brought me here [to the Euro].”

The coach thought it “only natural” for questions to be asked about his future at the helm. However, he defended himself by citing his relative inexperience in the job after taking over in August 2023, following the surprise resignation of Roberto Mancini. “All of the other coaches had 20 games in charge, some had 30 before the Euro, I only had 10,” he said. “The responsibility is mine, I picked the players. Of course, this is part of a process where I need to get to know the players.” 

Italy beat Albania in their Group B opener but did not lay a glove on Spain in a 1-0 defeat and then scraped through with a 98th minute equaliser against Croatia in a 1-1 draw. Despite shuffling his pack against Switzerland, nothing Spalletti tried came up trumps. “Having tried out a number of things over the course of this experience, I do come away with the notion that I have to change things, I’m convinced of that, I have to change things now,” continued the coach. 

Luciano Spalletti

“[That said] it’s not as scandalous a result as you’re trying to paint it to be... today we were under par, and against Spain, but not against Croatia, we made it through a tough group. However, we didn’t see a team that’s defined, in terms of fundamentals, the foundations we can actually build upon,” he signed off.

We can dominate big teams, says Swiss coach Yakin

Switzerland coach Murat Yakin was thrilled with his team’s deserved 2-0 win over reigning champions Italy at Euro 2024 on Saturday. They reached the quarter-finals for the second time in their history with goals from Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas capping an impressive performance in Berlin.

“There are only good sides at the Euros, we went unbeaten in the group stage and played well, and the Germany game showed we can go toe-to-toe with teams like that,” Yakin said. “We sent out an important signal tonight with the game we played. We did not only club together and defend as a unit and sit back, we showed we could attack and dominate proceedings,” he added.

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