Euro 2024, day 14
Central Europeans sparkle, Scandinavians and Mediterraneans do not
And we’re back. Hope you enjoyed your rest days because now we’re in the thick of the knockout stages and the newsletter is running again. As ever, these intros are the most boring bit to write, so let’s get going.
Switzerland 2-0 Italy
Oh, wow. Switzerland just steamrolled them.
Luciano Spalletti made six changes to the team that drew with Croatia. The most notable changes, for me, were in midfield, with Jorginho and Lorenzo Pellegrini getting replaced by Nicolò Fagioli and Bryan Cristante. I assume he wanted more physical presence in midfield rather than gentle passing rhythms, but this was a big shift. Murat Yakin’s only change was bringing in Rubén Vargas for the suspended Silvan Widmer, with Dan Ndoye moving out to right-wing-back.
There were ten shots in the match while the scoreline was 0-0. Nine of those were taken by Switzerland. This was domination. It was a mauling.
I don’t understand what Spalletti was trying to do here. Fagioli had a lot of the ball without using it particularly well. Surely Italy would’ve progressed the ball through midfield much more easily if Jorginho was playing in that role. I understand he was concerned without the ball, but was there not a way to get the two of them in a double pivot? This just did not work.
I can’t really process how lethargic Italy were without the ball. This is not a question of tactics. I know it was hot, but all else being equal, you’d think Italian players would be able to handle that better than Swiss players. Remo Freuler just makes a straightforward run into the box for the first goal and no one picks him up. This is basic stuff. You’re Italy. How can you be so bad at the core principles without the ball here?
Spalletti brought on Mattia Zaccagni for Stephan El Shaarawy at half time. It was probably the right call, but it’s not really a sub that could address the bigger problems. Italy kicked off the second half and immediately gave the ball away for a Vargas screamer. This was a low xG chance, but it was still just mind-blowingly poor to give it away like that and be so low energy out of possession. The more I think about it, the more I can’t process how bad Italy were today. Gianluca Scamacca had one big chance, but it was when the game was effectively done, and it might have been offside, anyway.
I haven’t talked much about Switzerland because I’m not even sure they were that good. British TV was getting some absolute raves in about them, which just felt like an early excuse in case they beat England in the quarter-finals. Or perhaps England will simply wet the bed against Slovakia. But if it is England, this will be the first time Gareth Southgate’s side have been tested by a functional attack. England have been imperious defending against almost nothing, can it hold up? We may or may not find out.
Germany 2-0 Denmark
It’s just lovely to watch them play football at times.