Italy boss Luciano Spalletti conceded the Azzurri were never in their Euro 2024 game against Spain and felt the defending champions were fortunate not to lose by more than a one-goal margin. (More Football News)
Riccardo Calafiori's second-half own goal made the difference as Spa𝓰in defeated Italy 1-0 in Gelsenkirchen on Thursday.
The defender became the first Italy player to ever put through his own net in a European Championship match♔ and a poor loss left the Azzurri with work still to do to secure progression from Group B.
Spain fir🐈ed off 20 shots to Italy's four, also creating 1.9 expected goꦦals (xG) to the Azzurri's 0.18 and enjoying 57.2 per cent of the possession, with La Roja clinching their place in the knockout rounds.
Spallettജi was honest in h෴is post-match assessment, with a huge clash against Croatia in Leipzig to follow on Monday.
"It is a result they [Spain] deserved and beyond the one-goal difference," Sp🔯alletti told reporter𓂃s.
"They deserved to win it ཧand we were never in the game
"Besides the final 20 minutes of the match we were never able to create situations which would allow us to actually compete against a braꦜnd of football of this level.
"They caused us problems larger than the scoreline sugges﷽ted, let’s not beat around the bush.
"Spain were a team on the night and we ♛were not able to be a team."
If they are to lift more silverw🔯are in Berlin next month, Italy will need a dramatic improvement, as attempting just four shots in the match meant it was their fewest on record (since 1980) in any Euros 🙈game.
By contrast Spain, who were drawn into what many believed to be the💮 toughest group at the tournament, have made light work of some difficult opponents, thrashing Croati💛a 3-0 before comfortably overcoming Italy.
They have clinch𒁃ed top spot in Group B with a game to spare, while Italy are second on three points, two clear of Croatia and Albania going into the final round of game♑s.
F🍸inding a way to increase h🎃is players' energy levels was on Spalletti's mind going into the clash with Zlatko Dalic's side.
Spalletti added: "Maybe I needed to give them more rest, I𒆙 probably need to give them more days off.
"We gave them a day and a half off in terms of rest and we saw that was the right deci𓆏sion in🍨 terms of our data.
"But there was too much of a gulf, we were constantly stretched, we probab𒉰ly didn't recover ver🎐y well in terms of just how demanding and important the [start of the] tournament was itself, because there was too much of a gulf in terms of sharpness and freshness.
"You can't necessarily talk about anything else, ove🀅rall. If you don't have the same stamina as the opposition, obviously you can't do things with the same reacti꧑vity, the same speed of reaction."
If Italy are able to secure second place in ꦿGroup B, they will face the runners-up in Group A, a position currently held by Switzerland, in the last 16.
