Italy is in clear difficulty. He is deservedly down and if he doesn’t wake up in the second half he will be out of the European Championship in about an hour. At the end of the first half, Switzerland led 1-0 thanks to the goal scored in the 37th minute Remo Freuler, midfielder good at latching onto a ball arriving from the left flank and beating Donnarumma with a shot that ended up in the goal after a double deflection. Once again Italy is at a disadvantage: it had already happened against Albania, Spain and Croatia, it happened again.
On the one hand, Switzerland with a very unscrupulous 3-4-3, with full midfielders good at entering the pitch and wingers ready for one-on-one play. On the other hand, the return to the four-man defense for Spalletti’s Italy with El Shaarawy and Chiesa supporting Scamacca and Fagioli in the control room. The first half almost always saw only one team on the pitch, it was a first half perennially dominated by Yakin’s team who were good at entering the Azzurri’s area often thanks to their quick phrasing. The first big chance came in the 24th minute: on a pass by Aebischer, Embolo did well to sprint without ending up offside and to appear all alone in front of Donnarumma: the Italy goalkeeper was perfect, in the right place at the right time and careful to block a non-angled shot. Thirteen minutes later came the goal that gave Switzerland the lead: this time it was Vargas who found Remo Freuler in the area, who did well to kick at the right times and broke the deadlock. In the final, Yakin’s team even came close to doubling their lead, directly from a free kick with Rieder: Donnarumma was perfect in averting the 2-0 with the help of the post.
Spalletti had asked his team to play carefree, with competitive fury. To show something different compared to the first three games: so far we haven’t seen any of this. Fagioli managed a couple of verticalisations, but Italy’s exit was disastrous. She never managed to keep the ball and it is no coincidence that ball possession has always been the prerogative of the home team. There is still time to redeem themselves, but Italy must wake up: a truly disappointing performance so far.
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