Italy head coach, Luciano Spalletti, has accepted responsibility for the team’s early exit from UEFA Euro 2024.
However, he attributed part of the poor performance to the limited time he had to prepare the squad.
The defending champions were eliminated in the Round of 16 after a 2-0 defeat to Switzerland in Berlin, with goals from Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas.
This marked the third consecutive tournament where the reigning champions were ousted at this stage.
Italy had eliminated Spain in 2016, and Portugal was knocked out by Belgium in UEFA Euro 2020.
The loss against Switzerland was Italy’s first knockout defeat in the Euros since the 2012 final against Spain, ending a six-match unbeaten streak in such games, which included three wins and three draws.
Spalletti, who took over as Italy coach in September 2023, following Roberto Mancini’s departure to Saudi Arabia, used his post-match press conference to highlight his late appointment.
“I have to say this, even if it may seem like I’m looking for alibis. Before this competition the other coaches had 20 or 30 games,” he stated. “I had 10 and I already had a gun pointed at me, saying that I had to win.”
He also pointed out the impact of injuries on the team’s performance. “Then we had several injured players that I was counting on, and today we saw that in terms of the intensity we were inferior. Switzerland qualified in a fair way.”
When questioned about his future as Italy coach, Spalletti made it clear he intends to stay but acknowledged the need for change within the team. “It’s a natural question, don’t feel guilty for asking me. It changes nothing for me in the sense that I take responsibility for what happened. I picked the players. I am not happy with the performance we produced or the performance against Spain. I am partially happy with the other two matches we played. This time I rested them up and changed the team. After the previous game, I blamed it on myself, regardless of team selection, for not making too many changes,” he responded
