Luciano Spalletti and his Italy squad were back to work on the training ground following their damaging Euro 2024 defeat to Spain.
The Azzurri were clearly a cut below Luis de la Fuente’s side at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen on Thursday night, looking lost and panicked on the pitch as la Roja cruised to a 1-0 victory, a fairly forgiving scoreline considering the balance of play.
The performance and result infuriated Italy fans, who have quickly started to lose hope in the national team following the defeat. The Azzurri need a positive result in their final group game against Croatia on Monday to confirm their spot in the Round of 16.
Italy back to work
La Gazzetta dello Sport details how Spalletti and his Italy squad were back on the training ground at Iserlohn stadium this afternoon to start preparations for their decisive clash with Croatia.
The coach spoke closely to his players for around 20 minutes before they emerged on the pitch and the atmosphere was markedly different compared to their training session after the win over Albania.
The Italy squad were divided into two – those who started against Spain worked in the gym on the bikes or other low-intensity exercises, whilst those who were left on the bench or only played a portion of the match were on the pitch with Spalletti.
In the practice match against one of the Borussia Dortmund youth teams, the Azzurri were lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation; Guglielmo Vicario was in goal, with Raoul Bellanova, Gianluca Mancini, Alessandro Buongiorno and Matteo Darmian in front of him.
In the midfield, Michael Folorunsho and Nicolo Fagioli were in the centre, with Stephan El Shaarawy, Giacomo Raspadori and Mattia Zaccagni in front of them. Mateo Retegui lined up as the sole striker.
Time to shake things up . Put some younger players . What do you have to lose at this point . There is no way they making it past round of 16 so at least build for World Cup qualifiers . I like Spalletti but I think Gasperini would be better . He takes lost players and turns them around
bruh they lost 1-0 on an own goal. di lorenzo got nutmegged literally one time. when retegui came on and actually pressed the ball it was an even game. they squandered possession consistently in the first half and it cost them greatly, but these are some of the best players IN THE WORLD. That spain team was outstanding. And they literally couldn’t score. Everybody loves to whine and complain but if these two teams were to meet again in the tournament, and a competent pressing striker were to start, I am convinced Spain would lose.
We got schooled by a school boy of 16 years old. That was talent. Italy well we leave Camarda at home.
@Francesco Russo – By a competent pressing striker, you mean anyone other than Scamacca.
Spalletti’s formation is the problem not merely the players! Di Lorenzo looked out of place out there! All the players except the goalie were not in the game. I blame all that on the coach’s tactics. If he uses the same tactics against Croatia, Italy will be humiliated! There is too much politics in Italian National Team football.
Only a fool would use the same tactics against Croatia and expect a different result to what Spain did to them! The 4-2-3-1 is not working. The midfield has to be more compact or it will be curtains!
@Francesco Russo.. You mean when Spain made their changes, had nothing to do with Italy’s changes.
Italy should have played 3-5-2, it would have given them greater presence in the midfield where Spain totally dominated. However, Spain were superb, their work rate, pressing game was excellent. Spaletti was totally lost with his formation and I’m afraid we lack talent at the moment.
our finishing and our physical side is weak work on muscle endurance legs this is not the italian way l am not a fan of england they come at u continosly non diferrent way of traing we need to ingest some of this try to make round of 16 and go from ther good luck to italia