Italy, defending champion, beaten by Switzerland and eliminated from the competition

Switzerland, long attractive and full of control, easily took the measure of a poor Italian team (2-0), defending champion, on Saturday in Berlin to become the first team to reach the quarter-finals of the Euro.

Remo Freuler (37th) and Ruben Vargas (46th) were the torturers of a transalpine team that displayed the same shortcomings as in the first round matches: a lack of attacking creativity and a fragile defense that was however once again able to count on a good Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal.

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Luciano Spalletti’s team struggled and cracked for the first time shortly after the half-hour mark. Isolated at the penalty spot by Vargas, Freuler pulled off a nice technical performance (control and volley) to put the Nati in the lead (37th).

Vargas in form

An action that highlighted the nice mechanics of the Swiss who managed a sequence of 33 passes and a possession of 1 min 25 sec before this opening of the score. Donnarumma then avoided the 2-0 shortly before the break by pushing back a shot from Fabian Rieder on the left post of his goal (45+1). Initially a decisive passer, the excellent Vargas turned into a scorer with a shot brushed into the top corner of the opponent’s goal, only 33 seconds after returning from the locker room.

Fabian Schär almost got the Italians back in the game when he came close to an own goal with a header that hit the frame of Yann Sommer’s goal (50th minute). But the Italian revolt was far too timid to claim anything other than an early elimination of a team without soul, even if Gianluca Scamacca hit the left post of Sommer’s goal a quarter of an hour from the end. A sad record for the Nazionale, absent from the last two World Cups and qualified at the last minute for the round of 16 of this Euro. In the quarter-finals, Murat Yakin’s men will face the winner of the match between England and Slovakia on Sunday in Düsseldorf on July 6.