Former coach Arrigo Sacchi gave a detailed analysis of Italy’s painful loss to Spain in their second Euro 2024 group outing, suggesting that ‘Serie A doesn’t help him’.
The Azzurri showed a number of positives in their opening match at the European Championship, responding well to a 1-0 deficit to Albania by turning things around and edging out a 2-1 win, giving them an early boost in Group B.
Spain shined in their opening match of Euro 2024, cruising past Croatia in a dominant fashion with a 3-0 victory, causing concern amongst the Azzurri fans. This concern was ultimately realised in their meeting in Gelsenkirchen on Thursday evening.
Spain put on a dominant showing in their clash with Italy, looking dangerous throughout the match, and they eventually took the lead in the second half after Riccardo Calafiori was unlucky enough to guide the ball into the back of his own net, leaving the Azzurri to lose 1-0.
Sacchi analyses Italy loss to Spain
Writing for La Gazzetta dello Sport, Sacchi explored Italy’s defeat to Spain, explaining why things went wrong for Spalletti’s side in Gelsenkirchen.
“The picture of the match was quickly seen, there was an organised collective against a group of players wandering around the pitch. The difference between Spain and Italy, from what we saw last night, is enormous.
“De la Fuente’s national team practice a football of domination, have technical and tactical knowledge, know how to move and, above all, do so with the right timings.
“Italy, unfortunately, aren’t yet a team, it takes time, it takes patience. We should learn a lot of things from this defeat, and I hope we will try to treasure the mistakes made without getting caught up in the usual presumption.
“Let’s clarify one point immediately: Spalletti is not to blame. He’s a coach who has been working for the team for less than a year, he inherited a complicated situation and he’s trying to give a style to a country that has never had it.
“Serie A doesn’t help him, most of the teams practice an old football, not very in line with European principles, the players struggle to emerge due to the massive presence of foreigners.
“Working under these conditions is a serious problem, which must be taken into account when judging the Italy national team.
“It ended 1-0 to Spain, but we have to be honest and admit that it went well for us, they could have easily scored five or six goals, while we were never dangerous against Unai Simon’s. I saw right away that it was going to be a complicated evening.
“Italy seemed bewildered, almost intimidated, and this attitude is the result of a mentality that Italians have always carried inside themselves. We do not know how to reason ‘as a collective’, we (I mean, as a people) go our own way, we are individualists.
“Spain, on the contrary, were a perfect architecture, but it’s easier for them, all Spanish teams play that way, they have in their DNA the desire to dominate the opponent, to keep the ball, to go and steal it when they lose it.
“De la Fuente’s boys do nothing more than move around the pitch exactly as they do throughout the season, while the Azzurri, if they want to be a collective, must totally change the style of play they practise at club level.
“It’s too easy to list the mistakes. The marking was insufficient, in the defensive phase there wasn’t the necessary attention, there was never any attempt to anticipate the action and, consequently, there were no counters.
“So, it’s normal to fall into total darkness. You see that the others come at you and take the ball away, and you don’t have the strength or the knowledge to go and get it back. Spain got excited and we got more and more depressed.
“This match, when you think about it, showed the cultural difference between Spain and Italy at a footballing level. There is no shame in admitting our inferiority, as long as we work like crazy to close the gap.
“I was talking earlier about the errors in the defensive phase and, since a football team is connected by a thin thread that holds everyone together, it is natural that the difficulties at the back did not allow the development of the move forward.
“Spain attacked us in every area, we couldn’t keep hold of the ball, and neither could players who are technically good in our Serie A, like Dimarco. Why, then, this difficulty? Simple: Spain forced us to play at a speed and pace that are beyond our reach.
“At that speed and rhythm, even simple control or a two-metre pass becomes difficult, we’re not used to this intensity and our limits emerged. I heard someone say that our forwards were not given service, true, but how much did they move to receive the ball?
“Scamacca wasn’t very active, he didn’t dictate the tempo, he didn’t suggest a pass, he didn’t come forward and he didn’t attack the depth. But don’t blame him, just as you shouldn’t blame Spalletti.
“We still have the game against Croatia to qualify, plus we’ll have to show that we’ve learned the lesson Spain taught us. No drama, then. But a lot of humility to understand where we went wrong.”
What a load of rubbish! So Serie A is to blame? Was it to blame when we won in 2021? The truth is you can’t test a new system in a tournament. That’s crazy. By all means test in qualification but the players clearly couldn’t adapt to Spalletti’s tactics and more worrying, Spalletti did nothing to change it. I mean we were being slaughtered, there was no way tings would change at half time. He should have swallowed his pride and gone 3-5-2 or 4-3-3 or even 4-4-2. How can you effectively play two in midfield against Spain? Completely clueless.
Uhmmm…deep retrospection
Wise words from a master tactician.
Forza Italia. Play to your strengths
How is Spalletti not to blame when he’s trying to force his players to play a brand a football they’re not used to? And against the master of that style in Spain no less!!
Lesser sides have beaten Spain by absorbing their waves and counter attacking them, which what Italy players are actually good at. Football doesn’t revolve around possession.
Italy are so poor and so far behind Spain that they have 4 times as many world cups as Spain and are current euro champions.
crazy old man blaming foreigners.
First defeat inside 90 minutes at euro’s since dead rubber vs Ireland in 2016. And we lost to a United Nations team that is again relevant thanks to two France born centre backs. And despite all the difficulties, we lost to an OG.
LOL Sachi should shut up. almost all the players of italy play 3-5-2 in their theam, and spaleti could go with this scheme and not try experimanetal things like 4-14-5-78-45542-05454569416063156-1 he dream on it the night before
Italy need a player like Andre pirlo.
Sandro tonali is a good option.
Andrew pirlo was a magician.
The bald man used unfamiliar tactic. Seriously from the center backs point, DiMa and Basto are so deadly, but he wanted him to play different. Not to mention the whole squad is average. Italy lost before the game even started.
serie a is to blame too of course.
but it all reminds a bit a ventura when failing miserably with 4-2-4 against spain he blamed fitness levels.
Agree – rubbish.
Spalletti in over his head and he knows it. Luis de la Fuente is only a short time with the senior Spanish side but has them already transformed in a new system.
It is noteworthy that Luis de la Fuente’s background is with successfully managing Spain’s youth squads. This should be the same for the Italian setup with recent successful coaches taking over.
Every system can potentially be beaten-Spain are human and inherently have flaws or a way to beat them- Park the bus or pack the midfield to cushion the Spanish..I’ve always said speed without space is useless- spalletti tried to play like Spain and lost..he needs to change the system the players show they have no confidence in the system which in turn lowers their own confidence in their own ability to win 433 or 352 italy achieved the high press in 2021 spalletti and Italy have to learn this an quick if they want to beat a decent team.
Bring in a player that can hold d ball ND distribute it, drop pellegrini ,barrella shd move forward ,bring fagioli ,he is d only Italian midfielder who can create something from nothing, has vision ND skills
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. The formation has to change from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. Italy need to be compact in the midfield to have any hope of beating Croatia. Only a fool would play for a mere tie!
When most of the players played so badly then it’s more about the tactic not the players.
I rightly doubted Spalletti when b4 the match, he spoke about importance of keeping possession. Spain are masters at that and wrong approach to expect Italy to prioritise possession. Italy has the grit to win even with 30%possession as some other teams have done in past including Italy. The way Spalletti was yelling on sidelines showed he was totally lost as a CT. . . . .not a good sight for players on the field. Spalletti should own up that he messed up and improve for the next match and others if Italy qualifies. There isn’t much hope if Spalletti continues the same way he is doing so far. Italy Always! 🇮🇹
LOL at “Rosario” who calls Spain a United Nations team because for the first time it fielded two French born players who lived in Spain for over a decade, while he ignores the Argentin-born Retegui (who even his parents didn’t born in Italy, you have to go grandparents). Or are you referring to players of African roots, which there are only two of them, both born and raised in Spain (Williams Ghana, and Yamal (16ys) who hail from Morocco and Guinea (two former Spanish colonies), and while you ignore Folorunsho (half Nigerian)?? Fine, take all four out! Spain is still full of talent. I’m if Le Normand or Laporte goes off, Nacho, the captain of Real is in the bench. Olmo and Grimaldi are on the bench to. So is Merino.