Italy 1-3 France, Nations League: ITA 'On Right Track' Despite Defeat – Spalletti

Luciano Spalletti believes Italy are "on the right track" despite the Azzurri ending their Nations League campaign with a 3-1 defeat to France on Sunday. (More Football News)

🐻Adrien Rabiot scored twice and Guglielmo Vicario put through his own net as Les Bleus triumphed at San Siro, with all three goals coming from Lucas Digne set-pieces.

⛦Italy had already confirmed a top-two finish by beating Belgium 1-0 three days earlier, however, so they will join France in the quarter-finals next March.

ꦐDespite the result, there were plenty of positives for Spalletti to take from Italy's performance, as his team enjoyed more possession (53.8%), shots (10 to six), expected goals (0.59 xG to 0.39) and touches in the opposition box (20 to eight) than their opponents.

⭕"I believe that we are on the right track, I saw many things we sought in the correct way, but we were influenced by the emotion of the match, we forced the match," he said.

💟"In the second half the game was managed well, we often had the ball but we have to be cleaner with our ball management.

⛦"The analysis is certainly positive, it is clear that there is something to review. When we return, the group will do this."

꧋Italy were undone by some excellent dead-ball taking from Aston Villa full-back Digne, though, and Spalletti knows they must be more competitive on a physical level in the future.

♈"The boys wanted to go and challenge the opponent, there you spend energy. The third set-piece created problems for us, then we tried to react to score again, but they are physical," he said. 

൲"Now we will review the situations well, they are one of the strongest teams there is from a physical point of view."