ISERLHON – Silence and work, and not even for everyone. Training for a quarter of an hour visible to onlookers and the media, then total closure. This is Italy’s day after, the defeat against Spain stings, especially for how it arrived, i.e. without playing. And this leads to nervousness and anxieties. The Spanish dominance was clear, against all Spalletti’s predictions and beyond how the national team had prepared the match.
INSIGHTS
Italy, Spalletti: «Spain deserved to win»
Italy, after Spain
After the victory against Albania, the Iserlohn stadium was celebrating, with the Azzurri on the pitch in front of some fans.
This time Spalletti wanted to keep the evidence hidden, away from prying eyes, he needs to get the team back on its feet which on Monday in Leipzig, against Croatia, will play for access to the round of 16 of the European Championship: a draw will be enough to save the fourth place and go to Berlin for the round of 16 final, probably against Switzerland. In those fifteen minutes visible to the press, Lucio tested the players who were not involved with Spain and those who only played for a short time. On the pitch, against the Dortmund spring, Meret, Bellanova, Mancini, Buongiorno, Darmian, Folorunsho, Fagioli, El Shaarawy, Raspadori, Zaccagni, Retegui.
Buffon’s words
The next day it is Gigi Buffon, head of the delegation, who explains: «There is disappointment for having thought we had reached a certain level and instead the response was different. I think Spalletti is right, the physical aspect made the difference, Spain impressed us in terms of speed of execution. But for the immediate future we must be confident. Will Croatia have an extra day of rest? It will be a different match with different rhythms also due to the individual characteristics of its players. It will be a match that we will play and we can play to the best of our ability with the knowledge that we can get a good result.” The objective now is to work on the morale of the players, some of them are down, they thought that in these two matches they could have had a chance.
And some of them will have it on Monday, precisely to recover that physical aspect that Spalletti spoke about. «I saw the boys calm, we certainly couldn’t be satisfied, there was a lot of clarity in the analysis of the match and the difficulties we encountered. Sometimes defeat is easier to manage than victory. If against Albania we thought we were worth 9 now we don’t feel like 4. In the middle there is the reason. And on Monday we can’t be afraid, but only think about putting our talent on the field. Everyone would like to be in our place, we will have two results out of three: we have to find ourselves after the skid, I am convinced that on Monday evening we will be here talking about something else. Donnarumma? If he hadn’t conceded a goal it would have been ten, he saved every shot, he was truly an insurmountable bulwark.”
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1970-01-01 00:00:00
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