The Italian team went to Germany for Euro 2024 as European champions, but yesterday (29/6) they left with their heads down, only in the round of 16.
Luciano Spalletti’s “Squadra Azzurra” was defeated in Berlin (0-2) by Switzerland and ended a disastrous tournament, with poor performances and qualification for… instead of five knockout games.
The defeat raised questions over Spalletti’s future, despite having signed a three-year contract to replace Roberto Mancini less than 12 months ago.
After the defeat to Switzerland, however, Spalletti spoke as if he wanted to remain in the national team. “The results say we have to change things”said the 65-year-old man. “That was football’s verdict and I will be forced to do it”.
The president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), Gabriele Gravina, then confirmed at today’s press conference (30/6), alongside Spalletti, that the former Napoli coach will remain in office.
“We had a long talk”Gravina said. “I’m a realist and I think it’s unthinkable to solve problems in difficult times by abandoning a project that we said from the beginning would last three years”.
“You can’t think about abandoning a project after eight or nine months. Something has to change, something has to be revised in terms of approach. There will be deep reflections, last night we started going through this with Spalletti. We all have to grow up”.
Asked what he would do if he could go back in time, Spalletti replied: “I don’t play this game looking at what could have been. I can’t go back.”.
And he added: “It’s clear from what we saw that I made some mistakes. I tried to revive the team. As I will stay, I will try to renew the team even more in the future”.
For Italy, the next games take place in September, when they face France and Israel in the Nations League.