Spalletti: Italy Euro 2024 failure my 'responsibility'

Spalletti: Italy Euro 2024 failure my 'responsibility'

ByESPN NEWS SERVICES

June 29, 2024, 4:09 PM

Italy coach Luciano Spalletti said he took full responsibility for his team's exit from the European Championship in the first knockout round after an insipid 2-0 loss against Switzerland.

However, the 65-year-old former Napoli boss also complained he had not had enough matches in which to blend his team ahead of the defeat, which marked Italy's first elimination before the quarterfinal stage of the Euros in 20 years.

"I have the responsibility," Spalletti said at the post-match news conference.

"We failed because of my team selection, it is never down to the players."

Spalletti said, however, that he did not have enough time to get to know the team better.

All other coaches had 30 or even more games with their teams before the tournament started, he said, adding: "I only had 10."

"That goal at the start of the second half cut our legs, we weren't very incisive," Spalletti told reporters. "What made the difference is the pace, we had a pace that was too inferior to them in the first half. Even in the individual players there was a different pace.

"Pace and freshness always makes the difference, I changed the players by letting them recover and maybe at the moment here we are not able to do more than this. World Cup? A discussion that will be done later, we need more legs and more pace.

Italy came in second in group B behind Spain, after a last gasp equaliser against Croatia to snatch a 1-1 draw which kept the defending champions in Germany, and into Saturday's round of 16 first game in Berlin.

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.