Switzerland has devoured Italy. The old Italy that has not defended its crown with honour. Freuler and Rubén Vargas certified the fall of the Azzurri, who return home stunned, immersed in an endless debate, feeling that their title in the last Euro (it took place at Wembley three years ago) was, in reality, an anomaly because they have not participated in the last two World Cups and they are leaving Germany through the back door.
Switzerland offered a match full of efficiency, order and, above all, football. Everything that was missing from the ‘Azzurra squad’, a troubled team that leaves this Euro Cup with a miserable game where its forwards (Scamacca and Retegui) have not scored a single goal. And with a great Donnarumma it has not been enough for him to defend his title.
20 minutes had passed into the game. And no trace of Italy in Berlin. It was assumed, and rightly so, that Spalleti, who made Napoli play wonderfully, had to lead a team with a modern and innovative game. Well, it was quite the opposite. It was an archaic and primitive group.
They didn’t have the ball. They couldn’t even control the game, dominated as they were by an intelligent Switzerland, which accumulated possessions above 65%. Not even the coach’s decision to renew half of the ‘squadra azzurra’ due to the absence of the suspended Calafiori or the injured Di Marco stirred up his team. He modified the tactical structure by returning to the 4-3-3 formula. But Switzerland felt comfortable because The match was played at the pace set by Xhaka, their captain.
This is how the sunny and hot Berlin afternoon passed with the first of the round of 16 of the Euro Cup marked by the Italian prudence that was condemning him. Embolo threatened with a shot resolved with a plastic stop by Donnarumma which prevented the first Swiss goal. It was a threat that served, in fact, as a prelude to the final disaster.
A disaster that was a matter of time. The goal had to fall. And he had to fall, being born on the left wing with a perfect emergence from Rubén Vargas, who had the necessary clarity to detect the arrival of Remo Freuler. The veteran midfielder of Thiago Motta’s Bologna.
He arrived calmly into the Italian area. He had time to control the ball with his right foot and shoot with his left, while neither Spalletti’s centre-back (Mancini arrived late to the cut-off) nor the central midfielder were in sight. Or the inside midfielders. Freuler rewarded Swiss football, built on patience and order, knowing where the Italian chaos was coming from.
On that right wing, which Di Lorenzo had to monitor, were almost all the problems for Spalleti, who saw how those 45 minutes were a dangerous regression to the old ‘calcio’. That was the highway used by Murat Yakin’s players to punish, with insistence and judgment, a flat, sterile Italy (45 minutes (one shot, zero on goal) and boring).
After 27 seconds, and Spalletti’s team had already taken the ball off the line, Ruben Vargas received the ball alone inside the area. He even had time to ask for a coffee, an espresso or a ristretto, before unleashing a wonderful right-footed shot that eluded the giant Donnarumma. The 2-0 was beautiful and fair for Switzerland, but it was also depressing for an aging Italy, who were not even regenerated by the coach with his six changes.
2024-06-29 18:04:37
#Switzerland #sends #miserable #Italy #home #Provincia
