Italy out, as Swiss roll on to quarterfinals

BERLIN — Italy coach Luciano Spalletti said his team had to make significant changes after Switzerland dumped the defending champion out of Euro 2024 with a 2-0 last-16 win on Saturday.

Goals from Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas earned the Swiss a first win over the Azzurri since 1993, as the Euro 2020 winner was completely outplayed.

"We need players with more physicality, when you think you can play with your quality, but you lose intensity, it's only natural that you need to mix things up," Spalletti told reporters.

"What happened tonight did not come down to one single cause. If you don't do more with tempo and intensity, it's hard to compete on an even footing.

"We were under par in terms of intensity, tonight I made six changes (to the line-up) because I wanted to allow the players to be fresh, but the tempo was the same."

Despite saying his squad lacked pace, Spalletti took responsibility for the defeat.

"There's no blame on anyone, I want to stress this," said the 65-year-old. "The responsibility is mine, I'm always on the side of the players, I thank them for having brought me here (to the Euros)."

The coach thought it "only natural" for questions to be asked about his future at the helm.

However, he defended himself by citing his relative inexperience in the job after taking over in August 2023, following the surprise resignation of Roberto Mancini.

"All of the other coaches had 20 games in charge, some had 30 before the Euros, I only had 10," he said. "The responsibility is mine, I picked the players. Of course, this is part of a process where I need to get to know the players."

Despite shuffling his pack against Switzerland, nothing Spalletti tried came up trumps.

"Having tried out a number of things over the course of this experience, I do come away with the notion that I have to change things, I'm convinced of that, I have to change things now," continued the coach.

"That said, it's not as scandalous a result as you're trying to paint it to be. Today we were under par, and against Spain, but not against Croatia, we made it through a tough group.

"However, we didn't see a team that's defined, in terms of fundamentals, there are foundations we can actually build upon."

Spalletti was the coach who masterminded Napoli's spectacular Serie A title run last year. That was Napoli's first league championship in three decades — since the glory days of Diego Maradona — and the southern team won in thrilling style.

He left Napoli at the end of the campaign, saying he needed a break, but was appointed Italy coach last August after Mancini suddenly resigned.

Spalletti appeared to have brought that Napoli sparkle back to the national team as a newfound attacking flair helped Italy to turn around its qualifying campaign and finish second in its group.

But, there was little sign of that at all at this tournament.

Italy conceded the fastest goal in the tournament's history in its opening 2-1 victory over Albania, was thoroughly outclassed in a 1-0 loss to Spain, and needed a last-ditch equalizer from Mattia Zaccagni to snatch a 1-1 draw against Croatia to advance to the knockout stages.

'Not done yet'

Switzerland coach Murat Yakin was thrilled with his team's deserved 2-0 win, reaching the quarterfinals for the second time in its history.

"There are only good sides at the Euros, we went unbeaten in the group stage and played well, and the Germany game showed we can go toe-to-toe with teams like that," Yakin told reporters.

"We sent out an important signal tonight with the game we played.

"Not only did we club together and defend as a unit, we showed we could attack and dominate proceedings."

Switzerland's fans celebrated jubilantly with the players after its first win over Italy since 1993.

"It really sends a tingle down your spine, gives you goose bumps, it's hugely gratifying," continued Yakin.

"All this support shows we're on the right track and doing things the right way, we've earned the right to be here, but we're not done yet."

Vargas set up the first goal for Freuler, and then curled home a sumptuous second himself, having only been picked due to Silvan Widmer being suspended, but played on the opposite flank.

Yakin joked he would "take an aspirin" to resolve any selection headache for the quarterfinals, against either England or Slovakia, who played on Sunday.

Vargas said Swiss captain Granit Xhaka had told him to grab the second at halftime and he obliged just 27 seconds into the second period.

"A little bit before the second half started, Granit said to me 'please score a goal'," recounted 25-year-old Augsburg winger Vargas.

"A few seconds later, I found the ball at my feet, so I did what Granit asked and shot."

Agencies