If Italy was in great difficulty against Spain, it was primarily due to its physical shortcomings, admitted the Transalpine coach.
Italian coach Luciano Spalletti blamed his team’s 1-0 defeat against Spain on Thursday in Gelsenkirchen on the “lack of physical freshness” of his players.
“What made the difference was our lack of physical freshness,” declared the coach at a press conference.
“I should have given my players more days of rest (after the victory against Albania 2-1, editor’s note), we only gave them a day and a half based on the different data we had. The difference was too clear, they created too many problems for us,” he noted.
“If you don’t have the same (physical) level as your opponent, you can’t compete in all areas. Faced with an opponent of this technical quality, if you don’t respond physically, if you don’t have the necessary speed of reaction, you lose lucidity, you make more mistakes, you lose too many easy balls. underlined the former Naples coach.
Italy was dominated by Spain who won with an own goal from Riccardo Calafiori (55th), but could have lost more heavily without the numerous saves from their goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
“Spain played as a team, we didn’t succeed. They deserved to win this match, we were never in this match, we never managed to create correct situations to reach their level,” regretted Spalletti.
With three points, Italy is 2nd in Group B and will have to secure its ticket for the round of 16 on June 24 against Croatia (4th, 1 pt).
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