Italy returned to Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on Saturday, a place revered by its fans since it held its fourth World Cup there in 2006, cheered on by the songs of Buffon, the legendary goalkeeper, now a member of the national team’s technical team. They found not glory but ruin. Switzerland showed them the mirror. There, Spalletti’s dreams and the poverty of the squad of a team that lived the Euro Cup as an agony were evident. Switzerland fully deserves to be in the quarterfinals.
2
Yann Sommer, Manuel Akanji, Fabian Schär, Ricardo Rodríguez, Michel Aebischer (Renato Steffen, min. 91), Dan Ndoye (Vincent Sierro, min. 76), Granit Xhaka, Remo Freuler, Breel Embolo (Kwadwo Duah, min. 76), Rubén Vargas (Steven Zuber, min. 70) and Fabian Rieder (Leonidas Stergiou, min. 70)
0
Gianluigi Donnarumma, Alessandro Bastoni, Matteo Darmian (Andrea Cambiaso, min. 74), Gianluca Mancini, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Nicolò Fagioli (Davide Frattesi, min. 85), Nicolò Barella (Mateo Retegui, min. 63), Bryan Cristante (Lorenzo Pellegrini, min. 74), Gianluca Scamacca, Stephan El Shaarawy (Mattia Zaccagni, min. 45) and Federico Chiesa
Goals
1-0 min. 36: Freuler. 2-0 min. 45: Ruben Vargas
Referee Szymon Marciniak
Barella (min. 34), El Shaarawy (min. 44), Gianluca Mancini (min. 56)
“We have to give young people a chance!” said Luciano Spalletti on Friday, in a vibrant speech that seemed inspired by a prophetic vision. The Italian coach put it into a crucial decision when he left Jorginho on the bench and put Nicolò Fagioli in midfield, a 23-year-old who spent practically the entire season without playing, suspended for participating in illegal betting. Much of the press supported a measure that removed the naturalized player without considering that he was the most experienced man in the squad and the most lucid with the ball at his feet. Spalletti thought he had found a successor. He bet that the regeneration that the people expect would take place in Berlin. Suddenly. Without realizing it, this true football sage made the mistake that causes the most damage: he confused desires with reality.
Switzerland is the reality. This is a team with fundamentals. Sommer, a notable goalkeeper; Akanji, a world-renowned center; Xhaka, one of the most influential midfielders in the tournament; Freuler, a dynamic, humble, passionate guard, with an energy that infects his teammates. It is difficult to be Swiss and not get involved in games with these directors and that is what Ndoye, Vargas, Embolo and Aebischer did, in an outbreak of hostilities that brought the Italians into their field.
By dint of playing together for years, the Swiss have achieved the kind of empathy and synchronization that gives them a stellar advantage against teams like this Italy, which presents different lines in each lineup. Spalletti is tormented by his own ideas. “I take the poison alone,” he confessed in Leipzig. The Swiss, so calm in the locker room tunnel and so determined on the field, were not worried at all. They got together, pressed, stole incessantly, stood out and associated with simplicity against a Fagioli who saw himself as alone as Jorginho saw himself against Spain. More of the same. Italy’s problem was never his midfield: it was everything he had in front and behind. Defenses without aggressiveness, more concerned with the exit than with the mark, and attackers without imagination, progressively intimidated until reaching the apotheosis of the inferiority complex. After half an hour, after a one-on-one match from Embolo that Donnarumma saved, the Swiss struck the first blow. Akanji broke lines with a pass to Embolo, Ndoye took the ball against the resistance of the rival midfield and Vargas joined the team to set up Freuler with a pass to the heart of the area. The midfielder came in free and portrayed Fagioli, surprised in his position as guardian of the central lane. Donnarumma did not avoid 1-0.
The passage of time accelerated the spiral of deterioration azzurro. On the first ball played in the first half, Fagioli enabled Xhaka, the Swiss captain, with a long pass. The play caught the Italians on the wrong foot. Vargas took advantage of his opponents’ passivity in the retreat to score the shot at the far post. The second goal on the scoreboard plunged Spalletti into despair and his players into discouragement. The entrances of the heroic Zaccagni, the industrious Retegui, the melancholic Pellegrini and the fervent Frattesi did not dispel the general feeling that all efforts would be useless. Until the 72nd minute, Italy did not shoot between the three sticks: a predictable shot from Retegui into the hands of Sommer.
Switzerland ended the afternoon patiently managing their lead. They could have increased it against a team traumatised by the clash with Spain. The Italians completed the rest of the match like someone filling out a form. The great Jorginho watched from the bench. Perhaps with relief. Now no one can blame him for the disaster that surrounds him.
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