Ambrosini: ‘Not a special feeling for Italy at EURO 2024’ | OneFootball

Former Milan midfielder Massimo Ambrosini is not hopeful that Italy can repeat their success at EURO 2024, but names the Azzurri he feels stand out from the rest.

Ambrosini sat down with OLGB to discuss the upcoming European Championship, as the Azzurri go into it as the reigning Champions of Europe.

However, while they were underdogs at EURO 2020 and beat England in the Final at Wembley, this might prove to be an even tougher task in a group with Spain, Croatia and Albania.

“I would like to be honest about Italy, I don’t have a special feeling right now even though Luciano Spalletti is the best manager we could have at the moment,” he told OLBG.

“I don’t know if he has enough time to give to the group his ideas. We have also lost one key player in Francesco Acerbi, who would’ve brought so much experience. We still have many good players but I’m realistic, we need to go through the group, of course. Then for me, a quarter-final is an optimistic position for Italy.”

The group has changed a great deal from the side that triumphed at Wembley Stadium three years ago, though it also failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup under Roberto Mancini.

“Right now, this Italy team has less quality than the squad had at Euro 2020,” continued Ambrosini.

“Italy are strange because we failed to qualify for the last two World Cups, and then in the middle we won the European Championships, we can be a strange team. That squad grew day by day at Euro 2020, game by game, they created a special feeling in that tournament, I’m not yet sure if the current team can be as good.”

Spalletti only took over in September 2023 and the build-up to EURO 2024 is the first time he’s had more than a few days to work with the players.

“You would have seen what Luciano Spalletti did with Napoli last year and it was one of the most incredible teams I have seen in two decades, the way they play.  Luciano is a very good manager but in only 20 days he has to get his team playing consistently fluid football, that’s a bit different to Roberto Mancini.

“Players move around the field with no fixed position, but everybody wants to move to find the right space. I hope that the players understand very quickly what he wants.”

Ambrosini analyses strongest Italy players

Gianluigi Donnarumma and Nicolò Barella are considered the stand-out stars in the current Azzurri crop.

“In Italy, sometimes we like to criticize Gianluigi Donnarumma. People in Italy, especially in Milan, cried when he left for PSG. But in all honesty, he’s not on the same level as Gianluigi Buffon, we talk about Buffon like he’s a God. For Donnarumma to arrive on that level he needs to play a bigger role in the team for three or four more years to get near to that level.

“Of course Italy’s most important player is Barella. The level he reached in this last season with Inter showed him to be a top player. For me, he needed to reach one more step to become a very, very top player, but this season he has added so much more to his game.

“He’s a strong player, box to box, then he needed to add more skill to his game, which he did on the ball last season, he has more than he had in the past.”

Barella just signed a new contract to stay at Inter, despite the rumours of Liverpool or Manchester City interest.

“I would have been very curious to see him with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, he has everything to play with in the Premier League.”

So who does Ambrosini tip to succeed Italy as Champions of Europe?

“I think France have the strongest team. They have so many good players with so much experience. For me, right now, they are better than the competition.”