Spalletti’s Italy errors further highlighted by Spain’s Euro Final

Spain are the first EURO 2024 Finalist, but rather than being a consolation to Italy it further highlights errors made by Luciano Spalleti during the tournament and especially against La Roja, writes Lorenzo Bettoni.

Spalletti and Italy players have been on holiday for more than ten days already while Spain are preparing for their third Euro Final in the last five editions.

When the Azzurri and La Roja met in Gelsenkirchen in the group stage, the technical and tactical gulf between the two sides seemed immense and only a superb performance by Gigio Donnarumma helped the Azzurri get away with a narrow defeat.

After a convincing debut against Albania, the loss to Spain was a reality check for the Azzurri and their coach, Spalletti, especially after the CT claims on the eve of the game.

We already highlighted at that time how Spalletti’s desire to “dominate proceedings” against the Spaniards was an ambitious plan that even his predecessor Roberto Mancini failed to accomplish in the Azzurri’s successful European campaign three years ago.

A thin line separates courage and arrogance and, as Fabio Capello suggested a few days ago, Spalletti crossed it against Spain and during the Euros.

The Azzurri CT wanted to show that even Italy is “an important school of football” and that his lads could play on par with La Roja. Not only it didn’t happen, but the result on the pitch was exactly the opposite. Italy wanted to play attacking football and press high, but it was so difficult to do so that they didn’t even counter-attack or produce a shot on target.

Furthermore, Italy were even tactically unorganised and disjointed and Spalletti was unable to make any tactical change that would help the defence and ease the pressure on Federico Dimarco and Giovanni Di Lorenzo, who were hammered by Lamine Yamal and MOTM Nico Williams down the flanks. Italy didn’t double-mark Spain’s wingers, exposing their left-backs. This was an evident error during the match already, and it is further highlighted now that La Roja have reached the Final.

Yamal and Nico have clearly been the best wingers in the tournament and are among the few players who are able to dribble past opponents in this tournament. How was it possible to leave Di Lorenzo and Dimarco in one-v-one situations against them for 90 minutes?

Spalletti lined up the Azzurri almost as if he were playing against no opponent. After the Spain defeat, the coach admitted for the first time that he had made a mistake by starting the same XI as in the previous match against Albania.

From that moment, however, he took exactly the opposite direction.

He not only changed the line-up for every Italy game but also made at least one substitution during half-time breaks, meaning that the Azzurri never played with the same XI for more than 45 minutes straight.

We have already analysed Spalletti’s many errors during the Euros, but ultimately, the biggest one, amplified by Spain’s qualification for the Euro Final, is that the coach didn’t really understand the skill sets of the team at his disposal. Not only because he used a four-man defence in three games from four despite including ten defenders in the team.

He didn’t realise that his players didn’t have the quality to compete on the same level as Spain. Not even France, arguably the strongest team in the tournament, won the ball possession against La Roja or was able to Palleggiare in faccia—dominate proceedings—against Rodri and his teammates.

It is no sin. Spain have been the best team in this regard for more than ten years, so Spalletti should have found a different solution once he saw that Yamal and Co. would cause trouble too easily for his lads. One may even argue that Spalletti and part of the dressing room lost certainties after such a poor performance.

We all want to see an Italian national team that plays good football, but it is impossible to do it in every match. The defeat against Spain was a nasty turning point for the Azzurri at the Euros and now that Luis de la Fuente’s boys have reached the Final, Spalletti’s errors are even more evident.