The defending champions are struggling through the European Championships so far. Italy needs to do a lot better against the strong Swiss team – and now, of all times, they are missing their new hope.
Luciano Spalletti has been angry a lot recently. Anyone who wanted to could witness this in the first two weeks of the European Championship. Italy’s coach made no effort to hide his displeasure. Not on the sidelines and certainly not in front of the microphones.
First, it was his team’s recklessness against Albania that annoyed the 65-year-old. Then, against Spain, everything bothered him – to put it bluntly. And after the last group match against Croatia, his verbal outbursts culminated in a veritable angry speech when Spalletti openly and unrestrainedly took on the journalists.
Defending champion staggers
Italy is in the round of 16 against Switzerland. The defending champion will open the knockout round in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium (July 29, 2024, 6 p.m., radio report and live ticker). The catch? That’s where the good news ends. Because Spalletti and his Squadra Azzurra did not march into the round of 16. Instead, they stumbled through their group – and only narrowly avoided major disappointment.
But that is now a thing of the past. At least that is the impression the coach would like to convey. And so the raging man of the preliminary round launched a charm offensive. He unexpectedly let fans watch training, and he showed himself to be a thoughtful coach to the journalists at the evening press conference the day before the game. He sat there with a pad and pen, listened attentively, made short notes now and then and answered with concentration. Calm instead of anger. “We have to improve in order to be able to think big,” Spalletti admitted quite openly.
A new lightness should help. The burden has been lifted, at least a little, even for the experienced champion coach of SSC Naples himself. “We were drawn against a difficult group in the preliminary round. That put the players under a lot of pressure – I felt that pressure too,” he said. It may explain some of the angry words. Now he assumes “that we can play more freely and carefree.”
Star Chiesa unhappy in the rotation machine
But that alone will hardly be enough. Something has to be done in terms of playing. The biggest problem child? The attack. This has long been noticed in the country of the opponents in the round of 16. Italy were once again unable to hide – wrote the Swiss “Tagesanzeiger” after the last-minute point against Croatia – “that their strengths do not lie in the offensive”.
It was a mild assessment of the Italian attack’s performance so far. Spalletti is clearly working on getting the unfinished construct up and running. After the offensive game against Spain became the epitome of harmlessness – shot statistics: 4:19 – he not only appointed the personnel, but also restructured the system.
Federico Chiesa is the pawn of these experiments. The 26-year-old attacker from Juventus Turin is one of the big names in the team and is actually the personification of hope to give the brittle attacking efforts the necessary spirit. But at first he rotated between the wings, and when Spalletti switched to a 3-5-2 with a three-man chain and a double striker against Croatia, the two-footed multitalent suddenly ended up on the bench. Admittedly, Chiesa had also hidden his talent well against Spain.
Hopeful Calafiori is missing due to yellow card suspension
Completely different from Riccardo Calafiori. If there wasn’t Gianluigi Donnarumma, the top goalkeeper in top form, the 22-year-old central defender would probably have to fill the vacuum of hopefuls all by himself.
The games at the European Championship were his third, fourth and fifth international appearances for the Italian national team. He only made his debut in June in the last test matches before the European Championship. Now he is surrounded by the vibe of the great Italian defensive legends such as Paolo Maldini or Alessandro Nesta. The experts love him for his game and celebrate him as die sporting discovery of the tournament.
Further construction sites in the Italian defence
The annoying thing for all fans of (footballing) beauty: In the third minute of injury time against Croatia, Calafiori stopped a counterattack at the halfway line. He was rightly shown a yellow card for this, it was his second in this tournament. So the man who was not only solid in defense, but also played important balls in the build-up play – and dared to go forward – is missing against Switzerland.
Just like against Croatia, when, in Lúcio style, he used his last strength to plow through the midfield five minutes after receiving a yellow card, set up the 1-1 and continued to write his heroic story.
He is not the only absentee for Italy. While the offense was previously the problem area, the defense formation is now also shaky. Left-back Federico Dimarco will certainly be missing. And his Milan teammate Alessandro Bastoni – who has been at Calafiori’s side for every minute of every game so far – is also a concern for his coach. “We have to make a decision at short notice. He had a fever, we tried to rest him,” said Spalletti. The trend? Positive, at least. “He trained with us, he’s feeling better.”
Yakin is planning the next surprise
So it is a fragile Italian construct that will face Switzerland. And thus a team that is itself the exact opposite. “We have an extremely great, very success-oriented mood at the moment,” said goalkeeper Yann Sommer. The team has defended very compactly and “with great spirit” so far at the European Championships. “That’s why it has been very difficult to create chances against us so far,” said the 35-year-old. Not least in the DFB team, everyone knows what Sommer is talking about after the preliminary round duel.
Does that mean that Switzerland is now the favorite against Italy? Sommer, at least, didn’t want to hear about it. When asked, he laughed his friendly Yann Sommer laugh for a few seconds and replied: “No, I wouldn’t say that. We will definitely be very well prepared. And yet: We are playing against the reigning European champions. That says a lot.”
Switzerland has been waiting for a win against Italy for 31 years
But while the reigning European champions were mostly looking for solutions in the group phase, the Swiss had them. While Spalletti was raging, his Swiss colleague Murat Yakin was applauded. Because he chose unforeseen approaches and convinced with them. He also said confidently: “We are prepared for everything. In the end, we have to focus on my players, my tactics and my system. That we will control the opponent and also surprise them.”
Yakin paused briefly, smiled and then added: “Hopefully.” It would be the first victory for Switzerland after 31 years and eleven games against their big neighbor. What would Luciano Spalletti say about that at the press conference after the game?
