Italy coach Luciano Spalletti, left, is targeted by his country’s press.
AFP
The elimination of Italy, reigning European champion, in the round of 16 of Euro 2024 on Saturday against Switzerland, was unsurprisingly seen in the Italian press on Sunday as “a shame”, “a national bankruptcy” , “a shipwreck”.
“A shame”, headlines the Corriere dello Sport on the front page with a photo of a Nazionale player on the ground, hands on his face. “In Berlin, the Azzurri hit rock bottom, it’s a disaster,” wrote the daily after the defeat against Switzerland 2-0 at the Olympic Stadium. “We were unable to play football and the main person responsible for this mishap is (coach Luciano) Spalletti,” judges the Sports Courier.
“It’s a national failure,” he added. Allsports“Switzerland has taught us a lesson, the whole system needs to be overhauled.”
This is also the feeling of the Gazzetta dello Sport which crosses its front page with a huge “Everything has to be done again”, after “a new black page for our calcio” with in the background a photo of the Italian players looking defeated in front of their fans who whistled at them at the end of the match .
“The time for excuses is over: without game, without character, without ideas, without a flash, without honour, without excuses, Italy, after having failed to qualify for the last two World Cups, left the Euro, humiliated by its opponent, contested by its fans,” writes the daily with the pink pages.
“In four matches (of this Euro), if we exclude the first thirty minutes against Albania (editor’s note: 2-1 victory), Italy showed nothing of what was expected of it,” continues the editorialist of Italy’s best-selling sports daily.
“Third world of football”
For the Gazzetta dello Sport which points to “many structural problems explaining this national disaster”, the person responsible is also found, Spalletti, who arrived last August urgently to replace Roberto Mancini.
“He has not managed to give the Nazionale a technical physiognomy, nor has he managed to give the players he has chosen determination, the desire to fight,” the daily regrets.
The general press also seized on what the Corriere della Sera calls it a “technical, tactical and personality trainwreck.”
“We have fallen into the third world of football, after two missed World Cups, which we saw on television and this inglorious European Championship in which we could only beat Albania. Between the two, there was the night of Wembley, to which we must cling, a flash, a flash in the desert,” the daily continues.
“The disaster of Italy,” is the headline of the Roman daily. The messenger. “The Azzurri: not even the illusion of existing,” he adds. The Republic.
If none of these titles call for Spalletti’s resignation, Italy football will know more about its future at midday: the Italian Federation (FIGC) has called a press conference with Spalletti and the president of the FIGC, Gabriele Gravina.
(AFP)
