Luciano Spalletti has taken responsibility for Italy’s Euro 2024 exit, though the Azzurri boss feels his limited time to prepare the team contributed to their poor displays.
The defending champions crashed out in the last 16 on Saturday, with Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas scoring as Switzerland claimed a deserved 2-0 victory in Berlin.
Following the Azzurri’s defeat, the reigning champions have been eliminated in the round of 16 at three successive editions of the tournament, with Spain going out to Italy in 2016 and Portugal doing so versus Belgium at Euro 2020.
The loss was Italy’s first in a knockout game at the Euros since the 2012 final versus Spain (90 minutes only), ending a run of six such matches unbeaten (three wins, three draws).
Spalletti only became Italy coach last September after Roberto Mancini quit to take the Saudi Arabia job, and he used Saturday’s post-match press conference to remind reporters of his late appointment.
“I have to say this, even if it may seem like I’m looking for alibis. Before this competition the other coaches had 20 or 30 games,” he said.
“I had 10 and I already had a gun pointed at me, saying that I had to win.
“Then we had several injured players that I was counting on, and today we saw that in terms of the intensity we were inferior. Switzerland qualified in a fair way.”
Spalletti was then asked whether he was likely to stay on as Italy coach in the aftermath of their worst Euros performance since 2004’s group-stage exit.
The former Napoli boss has no intention of stepping down but admits things must change for the team, responding: “It’s a natural question, don’t feel guilty for asking me.
“It changes nothing for me in the sense that I take responsibility for what happened.
“I picked the players. I am not happy with the performance we produced or the performance against Spain.
“I am partially happy with the other two matches we played. This time I rested them up and changed the team.
“After the previous game, I blamed it on myself, regardless of team selection, for not making too many changes.”