The Italians played poorly and were eliminated.
Photo: dpa/Robert Michael
Team manager Gianluigi Buffon stared into space for minutes, the players of the defeated defending champions apologized to their disappointed fans with expressionless faces. A completely inferior Italy deservedly failed in the European Championship round of 16 due to strong Swiss performances. At 0:2 (0:1) in front of 68,172 spectators in Berlin, coach Luciano Spalletti’s selection was lucky not to lose even further.
Remo Freuler (37th minute) and Augsburg’s Ruben Vargas (46th) decided the game for their German opponents in the preliminary round, whose players, like their euphoric supporters, jumped exuberantly to the European Championship hit “Freed from Desire” after the final whistle. Switzerland will face the winner of the game between England and Slovakia in the quarter-finals on July 6th in Düsseldorf.
For Italy, however, the journey home is on the agenda. »We were missing the rhythm and freshness that make the difference. We’re not in a position to show more than that at the moment,” admitted Italy coach Spalletti after the poor performance and announced a conversation with association president Gabriele Gravina about his future. “The responsibility always lies with the coach, I made the decisions,” said Spalletti.
Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma also spoke plainly. »It hurts to be eliminated like this. The end is deserved and the manner in which it happened is difficult to process. Everything was missing today, the quality, the courage,” said the 25-year-old and added dejectedly: “We can only apologize to our fans. This is unacceptable, we were bad the whole game. That’s the reality, we have to accept that.”
The emotional state of the winners was completely different. “We put in a great performance again and deservedly progressed,” said defense chief Manuel Akanji. And midfielder Fabien Rieder rejoiced: “We achieved an incredible performance as a team. Everyone ran for everyone. The mechanics were great, we harmonized well, both defensively and offensively. Now we want to enjoy the victory, but we won’t fall into euphoria.”
18 years after the 2006 World Cup triumph, the Italians returned to Berlin full of anticipation – only to experience huge disappointment. The Squadra Azzurra was worse in all respects and deservedly suffered their first defeat against Switzerland in 31 years. There was no longer anything to be seen of the inspiring football with which Italy had won the European Championship in 2021 and defeated Switzerland 3-0 in the group stage.
Spalletti’s change fizzled out
For the first time since 2004, Italy failed to make it into the round of the top eight teams at a European Championship and experienced the next low point after missing the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. As in the 1-1 draw against the DFB team in the group stage, Switzerland impressed and is in the European Championship quarter-finals for the second time in a row. The selection of ex-Bundesliga professional Murat Yakin earned the victory with a concentrated performance in front of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and UEFA boss Aleksander Čeferin.
After the disappointing 1-1 draw against Croatia, Spalletti changed the system once again and made numerous changes to positions. He justified this, among other things, with the hope of more offensive power. But his measures didn’t pay off at all – on the contrary.
Donnarumma prevents worse things from happening
Bad passes, misunderstandings and losing the ball far too quickly characterized the Azzurri’s offensive game, and an orderly build-up to the game was virtually impossible. Switzerland dominated the game, but took far too little advantage of the helplessness of the deep-lying Italians. Captain Donnarumma parried a shot from Breel Embolo after a pass from Leverkusen’s Granit Xhaka (24′). As in the previous tournament, the keeper was once again a reliable support and repeatedly encouraged his teammates with lots of gestures.
The 25-year-old was still there when Freuler’s deflected shot was deflected a good ten minutes later, but he couldn’t prevent the deficit. Donnarumma then steered a free kick from Rieder (45th + 1) onto the post. Spalletti, perplexed, put his hands on his hips on the sidelines and watched the action motionless.
Setback after the break
Spalletti made a substitution at half-time, but nothing got better for Italy after that. 27 seconds after the restart, Vargas was hardly attacked in front of the goal and shot beautifully from the edge of the penalty area into the top right corner of the goal. The Swiss only had to tremble briefly when Fabian Schär hit the post of their own goal (52nd) and a shot off the post by Gianluca Scamacca (74th). The Italians now had more possession of the ball, but were far away from the goal.dpa/nd
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