Luciano Spalletti insists the big difference between Italy and Spain was that ‘they were sharper and much quicker’ both mentally and physically.
The coach had said his plan was to take the initiative away from La Roja, but that was nowhere to be seen as they managed just 40 per cent possession and zero shots on target in a 1-0 defeat.
Instead, the Azzurri barely managed to string three passes together at a time, with Gianluigi Donnarumma making two big saves, Nico Williams hitting the crossbar and Riccardo Calafiori scoring an unlucky own goal.
“I was not disappointed as such, but it was clear from the start they were much sharper than us. If you don’t react at the same speed, it all becomes more difficult,” Spalletti told Sky Sport Italia.
“When it’s Spain who have this ability to target you quickly, it becomes doubly difficult. It is a simple analysis, they were quicker than us in their choices, in their pressing, in working together and it all comes down to the fact we weren’t as sharp as them.
“When the legs don’t move and you don’t have the right distances between players, character can only take you so far. We were always stretched out and every time we won the ball back, we lost it again.
“Our choices were not precise, our reaction was always a bit lacking in logic.”
Spalletti needs only a point
All is not lost, as though Spain are through to the Round of 16 as group winners, a point against Croatia would be sufficient to guarantee second place for Italy.
This is because even if Albania beat Spain in the other match, the Nazionale have a superior head-to-head record.
“We need to recover, be capable of reasoning the right way on the situations we saw today. At times we could’ve made different tactical decisions and kept the team tighter, but they were moving far quicker than us, reacting far quicker. The difference was too clear,” continued Spalletti.
Is it purely a physical issue that Italy lack sharpness compared to Spain, who only made one change from their opening game?
“I consider it to be a physical situation, as psychologically we were in good shape, coming off a good performance. We were up against a team that plays good football and we should’ve showed we were just as good on the ball, but instead they were much more reactive. That is what caused the problems.”
Italy went behind after 23 seconds against Albania and Donnarumma had to make a save after 90 seconds, so Spalletti was asked why do they start so badly?
“As time goes on, you start to lose your shape, lose sight of why you were making those decisions. Jorginho, Barella and others are good at making those choices, but we were probably struggling to defend because we made that attempt to control the game and have the same possession as Spain. We didn’t manage it and that made everything more difficult.”