The reigning European champion leaves with his head down. Italy was very logically eliminated by Switzerland on Saturday in Berlin, in the first round of 16 of Euro 2024 (2-0). Totally powerless because without collective ideas, Luciano Spalletti’s players gave in to Remo Freuler (37th) and Ruben Vargas (46th). There was no miracle this time for the Nazionale which displayed major weaknesses. The Nati will meet England or Slovakia in the quarter-final.
After a 4-2-3-1 in its first two group matches and then a 3-5-2 in the third with a draw snatched in extremis against Croatia (1-1), Italy presented itself in an unprecedented 4-3-3 with notably Nicolo Fagioli as sentinel or the returning Stephan El Shaarawy on the left wing. Between this starting eleven without continuity and a cruel lack of reference points in the offensive animation, the Nazionale produced nothing good in the first half.
A totally harmless Nazionale
Faced with a Nati confident of her strength after a solid first round, she fell back from the start and submitted to the will of her conquering opponent. Switzerland came close to 75% possession in the first quarter of an hour, gave work to the Italian defense and got a first good opportunity with a duel won by Gianluigi Donnarumma against Breel Embolo (24th).
The PSG goalkeeper, however, could only bow when Vargas served Freuler at the penalty spot from the left for a control in the race and a small recovery sent to the back of the net (1-0, 37th). Put into orbit by the Bologna player, the Nati even almost doubled the lead just before the break with a vicious and inspired free kick from Rennais Fabian Rieder which ended up on the post (45th+1).
A perfectly serene Nati
Spalletti revised his plans at the restart by launching Mattia Zaccagni, hero of the last match against Croatia, in place of the useless El Shaarawy. His change, however, was immediately weighed down by a loss of ball from his players on the start and especially the superb curled shot from Vargas which ended up in the left corner of Donnarumma (2-0, 46th).
On the other side of the pitch, Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer only shuddered at the poor header from his defender Fabian Schär that hit the post (52nd). His other teammates, for their part, calmly contained the totally harmless Italians. It was necessary to wait until the last quarter of an hour to finally see Gianluca Scamacca in the penalty area but his little shot also ended up hitting the post (74th). However, Italy never revolted and left the competition by the back door. Switzerland, for their part, will try to do even better than in the previous edition where they eliminated France before falling on penalties in the quarter-finals to Spain.
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