Europe will have a new champion! In the first match of the round of 16, the Italian team lost to the Swiss team. Almost no chance.
Luciano Spalletti probably surprised everyone with his lineup, including his Swiss colleague Murat Yakin. The former Zenit coach decided to win the duel against the former Spartak coach with fresh legs. If Calafiori was absent from the Italian team due to disqualification (he was replaced by Mancini), then came the transfer to the reserves of the main players of the group stage, Jorginho, Pellegrini, Frattesi and Dimarco, who suffered a slight injury. as a surprise. Overall, El Shaarawy appeared for the first time at Euro 2024, and Cristante and Fagioli were included in the starting eleven for the first time.
However, the match did not go as Spalletti had hoped from the start. The Swiss team had a huge territorial advantage and controlled the ball 70% of the time. After 10 minutes of play, the static advantage of Yakin’s team in precise passes in the opponent’s third seemed surreal: 30:1! The “Squadra Azzurra” was getting used to a different self, to new parts of its body. And I felt uncomfortable. The Italians made many mistakes under pressure, committed fouls because they were late. Although the pace was not at all unreasonable.
When attacking, the Swiss team focused on the left wing and, consequently, on the Italian right, which Di Lorenzo defended. There the full-back Aebischer, the interior Vargas and even the outside center Rodríguez moved and actively combined. The first scoring opportunity midway through the half came to Yakin’s team, when Aebischer made a wonderful pass to Embolo. The center forward jumped one by one (he avoided the offside due to Darmian’s deep position), but he did not do a very good dribble. It wasn’t the toughest save of Donnarumma’s career, although it looked impressive.
In general there were not many shots, but 10 minutes before the break the Swiss team scored a well-deserved goal for the match. And Yakin’s team mounted this attack down the left flank (making 31 passes during it!), and Vargas handed the ball into the penalty area to the onrushing Freuler. The support zone, where Fagioli mainly acted, did not manage to break through from the Bologna midfielder, who decided the episode with two touches. Low shot, but Donnarumma couldn’t save.
Switzerland – Italy
Photo: Alex Grimm/Getty Images
Spalletti’s team only had one shot in the first half and never found the target. The current European champions’ football was a nightmare for their fans. The Italian team was clearly inferior in many aspects, in particular 4:20 in touches of the ball in the opponent’s penalty area.
Spalletti could have changed everyone except Donnarumma, but during the break he limited himself to just one substitution: Zaccagni for El Shaarawy. And already in the first minute the Italian team missed the second goal! The Swiss, out of habit, moved to the left flank, where they created a three-on-two situation. Cristante reacted badly and then did not even block Vargas’ shot. With such a defence, Donnarumma and Safonov together, if they were positioned as a duo in goal, would not have been dragged down.
Read about Euro 2024
It’s a shame for Spalletti, who showed at Napoli that he is a truly top-level coach. But in the round of 16 of Euro 2024, his team was helpless. With the score 2:0, the Swiss team gave up territory to maintain the advantage they had gained. The Italians’ first scoring chance was created… by Swiss defender Cher. After the usual shot from deep, he decided to head the ball to goalkeeper Sommer, and it turned out to be an own goal. The “Euro Cup top scorer” did not score an own goal just because the ball hit the post and flew onto the field.
Halfway through the second half, Spalletti took off Barella and brought on the attacking duo of Scamacca and Retegui. With 20 minutes remaining, the naturalised Argentinean had his first shot on target for Italy, which proved to be harmless. The Inter goalkeeper was warming up. Then Scamacca remembered: as he crossed the ball from outside the goalkeeper’s area, it hit the post. But the goal might have been ruled out for offside.
Alessandro Bastoni
Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images
Before the first round of Euro 2024, I remember the video in which Albanian fans were laughing at the Squadra Azzurri fans: they were breaking spaghetti in front of the Italians. This joke would perfectly reflect what happened today in the match at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The Italians were significantly inferior to the Swiss in shots – 11:16 (on goal – 1:4, from the penalty area – 4:8), suffered an absolutely deserved defeat and on July 14 they will hand over their title to someone else.
