In the early morning of June 30, the first knockout match of Euro 2024 was played between Italy and Switzerland. In the first half, Faggioli made a mistake and Swiss midfielder Freuler swept in the box to give his team a 1-0 lead over Italy. In the second half, Vargas scored a lightning goal, and finally helped Switzerland defeat the defending champion 2-0 and advance to the quarterfinals of the European Championship first, while Italian coach Spalletti's use of personnel and tactics in this game was also criticized by the outside world after the game.
As the defending champions, Italy's qualification process in the group stage of this European Championship was quite thrilling, they won 1 and lost 1 in the first two games to accumulate three points, and fell behind by another goal against Croatia in the final round, until the game was in the second stage of the game to score the equalizer and advance to the round of 16 in second place.
Facing Switzerland, the second place in Group A, Italy not only changed to the 433 formation, but also changed as many as 6 starters as predicted by the media before the game. Scamacca, Shaarawy, Chiesa Jr., Roberto Mancini, Cristante, Faggioli and others were introduced. Among them, Roberto Mancini Jr. replaced the suspended Calafioli at centre-back, while Faggioli replaced Jorginho in midfield. The knockout lineup "changed face", and Spalletti was really guts.
Sky Sports accurately predicted Italy's formation and starting lineup before the game
The Swiss team continued their familiar 3421 formation, due to the suspension of the main right wing team Widmer, Swiss coach Yakin decided to replace Bologna midfielder Ebecher, and sent 22-year-old Stuttgart midfielder Fabian Reid in the left wing-back position, in order to suppress the attack of Italy's two wings.
After the opening, although Italy put on a 433 formation, the overall formation fell back deeper, and relied on the speed of two wingers, El Shaarawy and Chiesa, to counterattack. As the three midfielders before and after the undertaking have a clear position, Faggioli is responsible for the organization of the delay, Cristante sweeps on the right, and Barella connects on the left, and the team's offensive and defensive conversion is naturally handed over to Barella, who can attack and defend, and he is also taken care of by the opponent.
In the ninth minute, Barella was hit in the thigh during a scramble and had to be treated on the sidelines. In the 15th minute, Xhaka, the core of the Swiss midfield, also sat on the field because of a slight discomfort in his legs. The "soul man" of the midfield of the two teams has been strictly defended, and the game was quite stalemate and intense.
In the 24th minute, Embolo's one-on-one shot was a threat, but he faced Donnarumma, who was as solid as ever and made a flying save from his opponent's curling ball. After that, Italy immediately returned the color with a low shot from inside the penalty area, but unfortunately it was blocked by the opposing defender in front of the goal.
In the first 30 minutes, Italy only accounted for 36% of the possession, and the total number of passes in the team was a measly 105, almost half of the 190 of the Swiss team. In addition, they had as many as five fouls and eight clearances, and they were seriously behind in shots 1-7. Such statistics show that although Spalletti sent an attacking formation today, they are determined to play defensive counter-attacks.
In the 35th minute, Barella was tackled in front of the ball, and he chased all the way to his own half and brought down Reid, who broke through with the ball by the Swiss team, and received a yellow card.
In the 37th minute, the Swiss team cooperated in the front, Embolo distributed the ball to the left side, Vargas took a few steps and passed the ball to the vicinity of the penalty area, Floyler inserted the ball and scored with a left-footed volley in the penalty area, 1-0! The Swiss team scored after a long attack.
In the process of conceding this goal, the entire Italian backline was obviously not mobile enough, especially Faggioli, who played as a midfielder, was not clear enough about the situation behind him, so that he did not detect Floyler's back row insertion in time, so that the opponent could easily get the opportunity to stop the ball in the penalty area and then shoot comfortably. This conceded goal also doubled the pressure on Spalletti, who decided to switch to a back four.
In the 45th minute, El Shaarawy stepped directly on the foot of the opposing player Fabian Scheer while defending, and the referee showed him only a yellow card. At half-time, Italy fell behind Switzerland 0-1. Spalletti and the defending champions have only 45 minutes left.
In the 46th minute of the second half, Switzerland scored another goal through Vargas to lead Italy 2-0. In the case of falling behind by 2 goals, Spalletti first replaced all three starting midfielders, and directly came to self-denial. A precious substitution was then given to defender Cambiaso, who replaced Darmian, who had a mediocre performance.
2 goals behind the striker, but changed the defender, this knockout game chose a large rotation of the lineup, the result was simply defeated at the feet of the Swiss team Spalletti, I am afraid it will be difficult to escape the doom of class.