Sacchi analyses Italy loss to Spain: ‘Spalletti is not to blame’ | OneFootball

Former coach Arrigo Sacchi gave a detailed analysis of Italy’s painful loss to Spain in their second Euro 2024 group outing, suggesting that ‘Serie A doesn’t help him’.

The Azzurri showed a number of positives in their opening match at the European Championship, responding well to a 1-0 deficit to Albania by turning things around and edging out a 2-1 win, giving them an early boost in Group B.

Spain shined in their opening match of Euro 2024, cruising past Croatia in a dominant fashion with a 3-0 victory, causing concern amongst the Azzurri fans. This concern was ultimately realised in their meeting in Gelsenkirchen on Thursday evening.

Spain put on a dominant showing in their clash with Italy, looking dangerous throughout the match, and they eventually took the lead in the second half after Riccardo Calafiori was unlucky enough to guide the ball into the back of his own net, leaving the Azzurri to lose 1-0.

Sacchi analyses Italy loss to Spain

Writing for La Gazzetta dello Sport, Sacchi explored Italy’s defeat to Spain, explaining why things went wrong for Spalletti’s side in Gelsenkirchen.

“The picture of the match was quickly seen, there was an organised collective against a group of players wandering around the pitch. The difference between Spain and Italy, from what we saw last night, is enormous.

“De la Fuente’s national team practice a football of domination, have technical and tactical knowledge, know how to move and, above all, do so with the right timings.

“Italy, unfortunately, aren’t yet a team, it takes time, it takes patience. We should learn a lot of things from this defeat, and I hope we will try to treasure the mistakes made without getting caught up in the usual presumption.

“Let’s clarify one point immediately: Spalletti is not to blame. He’s a coach who has been working for the team for less than a year, he inherited a complicated situation and he’s trying to give a style to a country that has never had it.

“Serie A doesn’t help him, most of the teams practice an old football, not very in line with European principles, the players struggle to emerge due to the massive presence of foreigners.

“Working under these conditions is a serious problem, which must be taken into account when judging the Italy national team.

“It ended 1-0 to Spain, but we have to be honest and admit that it went well for us, they could have easily scored five or six goals, while we were never dangerous against Unai Simon’s. I saw right away that it was going to be a complicated evening.

“Italy seemed bewildered, almost intimidated, and this attitude is the result of a mentality that Italians have always carried inside themselves. We do not know how to reason ‘as a collective’, we (I mean, as a people) go our own way, we are individualists.

“Spain, on the contrary, were a perfect architecture, but it’s easier for them, all Spanish teams play that way, they have in their DNA the desire to dominate the opponent, to keep the ball, to go and steal it when they lose it.

“De la Fuente’s boys do nothing more than move around the pitch exactly as they do throughout the season, while the Azzurri, if they want to be a collective, must totally change the style of play they practise at club level.

“It’s too easy to list the mistakes. The marking was insufficient, in the defensive phase there wasn’t the necessary attention, there was never any attempt to anticipate the action and, consequently, there were no counters.

“So, it’s normal to fall into total darkness. You see that the others come at you and take the ball away, and you don’t have the strength or the knowledge to go and get it back. Spain got excited and we got more and more depressed.

“This match, when you think about it, showed the cultural difference between Spain and Italy at a footballing level. There is no shame in admitting our inferiority, as long as we work like crazy to close the gap.

“I was talking earlier about the errors in the defensive phase and, since a football team is connected by a thin thread that holds everyone together, it is natural that the difficulties at the back did not allow the development of the move forward.

“Spain attacked us in every area, we couldn’t keep hold of the ball, and neither could players who are technically good in our Serie A, like Dimarco. Why, then, this difficulty? Simple: Spain forced us to play at a speed and pace that are beyond our reach.

“At that speed and rhythm, even simple control or a two-metre pass becomes difficult, we’re not used to this intensity and our limits emerged. I heard someone say that our forwards were not given service, true, but how much did they move to receive the ball?

“Scamacca wasn’t very active, he didn’t dictate the tempo, he didn’t suggest a pass, he didn’t come forward and he didn’t attack the depth. But don’t blame him, just as you shouldn’t blame Spalletti.

“We still have the game against Croatia to qualify, plus we’ll have to show that we’ve learned the lesson Spain taught us. No drama, then. But a lot of humility to understand where we went wrong.”