There was a look of disbelief on the faces of all Italians who had made the trip to the Olympiastadion in Berlin, on June 29. Their national football team, the Azzurri had been knocked out by Le Swiss, in the Round of 16. Italy lost 2-0 against Switzerland in a game that was completely controlled by the opposition and all the Italians could hope for was to catch their opponents out on the counterattack.
Going into the tournament, Italy was not the favourites to defend their title. But neither were they touted to go out of the tournament so early at the first knockout hurdle. Let alone be defeated by an underdog team such as Switzerland. But as fate would have it, their dramatic injury-time equaliser to get into the round of 16 was to be their last goal of the tournament, and their second last shot on goal in the competition. Throughout the 90 minutes against Le Swiss, all Italy managed was a single shot on target against Switzerland’s 4 out of 16 total shots.
Historically, Italy’s defence has been regarded as the best of the best amongst their European counterparts, but even they weren’t tight enough against Switzerland. Both Swiss goals came because of spaces in the Italian defence. The MOTM Vargas zoomed in a low cross which found Remo Freuler’s feet who was given the space to receive the ball take a step forward with it and place the ball into the near bottom corner with the help of a deflection. The provider then turned into the goalscorer for the second Swiss goal. After just 30 seconds into the second half, Ruben Vargas found himself in the half-space with the ball at his feet and no one closing in on him as he let one curler fly past Donnaruma’s outstretched frame into the top right corner.
Luciano Spaletti to continue as head coach
The problem with Italy lies with the current personnel in the national team. Luciano Spalletti, the Head Coach recently won the Serie A with Napoli in what was a historic season for the Naples club. Moreover, the Italian side also managed to reach the UCL Semi-Final with Spaletti at the helm. But ever since taking on the national team, he has been unable to replicate such performances. But the blame lies within the profiles present with him. The quality of the team’s every aspect has fallen considerably over the last few years. This national team is young and requires time to grow. Federico Chiesa, Nicolo Barella, Riccardo Calafiori, etc have not yet matured enough as footballers. And these players have amongst others a very high ceiling as footballers. And maybe this is exactly why, even with such a disappointing showing in Euros 2024, the Italian Football Federation(FIGC) has decided to continue with
