The defending champion is out! Italy were easily eliminated by Switzerland, and Spalletti fainted and caused a collapse at the back

Asia-Europe Football Tracker

2024-06-30 02:05Creators in the field of sports

In the early morning of June 30, Beijing time, after three days of waiting, the 2024 Euro Cup finally kicked off the knockout round. The first quarter-final match was between Switzerland and defending champions Italy. In the end, with goals from Freuler and Vargas, Switzerland eliminated Italy with a score of 2-0 and successfully advanced to the top 8 of the competition. In fact, the word "upset" is used here purely to save face for the defending champions. Looking at the performance of the Azzurri throughout the game, it was completely unjust to be eliminated by Switzerland.

In a way, this campaign can be called a Serie A civil war. Because in the starting lineup of the Swiss team, there are five players who play in Serie A: Somo, Ronaldo, Ebischer, Freuler, and Ndoye. In addition, Shaqiri, Denis Zakaria and Noah Okafor on the Swiss bench are also playing or have played in Serie A, so the two sides are quite familiar with each other.

Perhaps because of this, both teams were cautious in the opening stages. It wasn't until 20 minutes later that Embolo and Chiesa each created a dangerous situation in the opposition box. After the stalemate, the Swiss gradually took the initiative in possession, and the Swiss team was always able to easily burn the fire into the 20-metre area of the opponent.

Italy has always been known for its strong ability to resist and counterattack, but when there is a scene of defensive and offensive turning, the Italian midfielders led by Barella have repeatedly failed to understand or the ball has been cut off directly, unable to lead the team to play the defense that they were once proud of, and also made Chiesa and Scamacca in front of them become decorations.

In this way, Spalletti's adjustment of the midfield personnel is quite a failure. Over time, Italy has fallen into a constant passivity. Therefore, Freuder's goal in the 37th minute is a logical event. In a pre-match press interview, Freuler had made such aggressive remarks as "We qualified for the World Cup, but Italy didn't". It is clear that Freuder is not bluffing, but has a strong confidence in beating Italy.

At the start of the second half, Spalletti made changes to the front, replacing El Shaarawy with Lazio striker Zaccagni, but the team's poor backfield defence was once again problematic. Italy's 3-3 on the left gave Switzerland an easy chance to attack, and Vargas scored from distance with a knife-and-drop hand. In less than 46 minutes, Switzerland had nailed Italy to the pillar of shame.

After taking a two-goal lead, the Swiss gradually slowed down the tempo of their attack and tried to digest the remaining game time. Italy, who was poor in donkey skills, replaced Barella, who was sleepwalking, and replaced Genoa striker Retegui. However, Italy, which has set up the twin towers of the front line, has not switched to the mode of walking in the air for a long time, and is still holding its sluggish and inefficient ground advance play. Until the final whistle, the Swiss defence did not feel the slightest pressure.

There was just one shot on target in the game, and the only threat that came close to scoring was a clearance of the post. Italy, which has been eliminated in this way, deserves only two words: unjust

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