Luciano Spalletti was glad to see Italy ‘remain a team throughout’ their 2-0 victory over Ecuador and concludes a ‘positive’ tour of the USA.
This was the second of two American friendly tests after Thursday’s 2-1 win over Venezuela and the coach changed the entire starting XI, including debuts for Guglielmo Vicario and Raoul Bellanova.
Lorenzo Pellegrini opened the scoring after just three minutes with a ferocious half-volley on the rebound from a Federico Dimarco free kick that hit the wall, then Nicolò Barella dinked a classy finish over the on-rushing goalkeeper in stoppages for the 2-0 result.
“We saw good things in both halves, then we weren’t clean enough, when winning the ball back and then losing it straight away.
“I saw we played more like a team and remained a team throughout, that is the fundamental thing,” Spalletti told RAI Sport.
“In the first half, we had more of the ball and were more attacking, so we could’ve scored another goal, but when we let Ecuador come forward, we still didn’t allow them many spaces.”
The friendlies were organised in the United States to help spread the Calcio message and meet up with the many Italian-Americans who cheer on the Azzurri.
“It has been a positive experience, as these lads are great professionals. There were many events, appointments and continual journeys, so managing to put it all together the way we did between the Federation and the team on the field, that makes it a very good tour.”
There are another two friendlies in June to warm up for the Euro 2024 tournament, but otherwise it is the last time Spalletti will see the squad before they come together for that competition in Germany.
“When people talk about players being presumptuous, I feel like telling you that all teams are of a high level now and we must all try to earn our results on the pitch against everyone. Nobody is superior now in football.
“We had some good performances, there were some things we need to sort out and didn’t have much time to work on, but these games help us to analyse and then find something positive.”
It was sad for most Calcio fans in the US because we could not watch the match on television. I pay for Paramount+ to watch Serie A and UCL and UEL and UECL. I pay for ESPN and ESPN+. I pay for Fox Sports. They need new marketing to draw more fans in the US.