New-look Spain and Italy meet in highly anticipated Euro 2024 clash
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Italy coach Luciano Spalletti (left) and his Spanish counterpart Luis de La Fuente will come head to head when their sides clash on June 20.
PHOTO: AFP
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DORTMUND – Spain and Italy have won three of the last four European Championships, and every competitive match between the two continental giants should be a highly anticipated affair.
What is even more intriguing this time, when they clash on June 20 in their Euro 2024 Group B encounter, is that both sides have shown a different style of football in Germany from what fans typically expect.
Spain thrashed Croatia 3-0
With their golden generation of pass masters Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta and Xabi Alonso long gone, La Roja have transitioned to a more flexible approach under new coach Luis de la Fuente which is better suited to the young, versatile squad at his disposal.
Against an ageing Croatia side, the Spaniards applied a relentless high press combined with quick transitions that seemed to catch their rivals off guard.
“We are turning the national team into a team that have many faces,” de la Fuente said, suggesting that he has more tricks up his sleeve.
“The other countries no longer know what kind of attack we are going to implement, and this is a reason to be very happy because it could put Spain back on the level that is expected from us.”
Unpredictability could be an advantage, and with doubts surrounding the injury status of midfielder Rodri and captain Alvaro Morata, the coach has been keeping his cards close to his chest for the match against Italy in Gelsenkirchen.
He closed Spain’s training sessions to the media for two straight days after the win over Croatia.
In the other camp, defending champions Italy, who were beaten 4-0 by Spain in the 2012 final, see little point in trying to disguise their intentions.
Tasked with restoring belief for fans devastated by their failure to quality for the last two World Cups, coach Luciano Spalletti has put his own mark on the side since taking over in late 2023 after winning the Serie A title with Napoli.
Steering clear of Italy’s traditional “defence-first” Catenaccio system, he has implemented a more attack-minded approach, which they used to great effect in beating Albania 2-1 in their opener.
Under Spalletti, the Azzurri seek to control possession and dominate small areas of the pitch with intense pressure, allowing Nicolo Barella and Lorenzo Pellegrini to service Davide Frattesi and Federico Chiesa on the wings.
That said, they were not totally convincing in their first game and former goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon wants to see the team learn to kill off games, after they risked conceding a late equaliser.
Italy fell behind to an early Albania goal in the first minute, the fastest-ever scored at a European Championship, but 15 minutes later they had overturned the deficit through Alessandro Bastoni and Barella.
“We did well, we showed that we’re balanced and have awareness,” the 46-year-old Buffon, serving as head of delegation with the national team, said at Italy’s training base in Iserlohn.
“Despite a shocking start that could have been destabilising, we continued to grind (out) the game. As the coach said, our strength is to stick to the game plan, and we fully deserved the victory.”
What he is concerned about is that Spalletti’s men were unable to find another goal to kill off the game, and were almost punished at the end when substitute Rey Manaj forced Gianluigi Donnarumma into a late save.
“There is something to perfect – with a little more cynicism and anger, we probably would not have risked seeing a fundamental victory almost fade away in the 90th minute,” he warned. REUTERS
