Team that wins cannot be touched. Luciano Spalletti has no intention of changing the starting eleven that won and convinced against Albania on Saturday evening. For the match against Spain which will take place this evening at the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, there will be room for the same team that lined up in Dortmund.
Probable Italy lineup (4-2-3-1) – Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori, Dimarco; Jorginho, Barella; Chiesa, Frattesi, Pellegrini; Scamacca. Available: Vicario, Meret, Gatti, Buongiorno, Mancini, Darmian, Bellanova, Cambiaso, Cristante, Fagioli, Folorunsho, El Shaarawy, Zaccagni, Retegui. Technical commissioner: Luciano Spalletti.
Below is the full press conference of Italy’s coach Luciano Spalletti on the eve of the match against Spain.
Who is the penalty taker?
“In my opinion we have more than one, Scamacca, Retegui, Barella, Dimarco, then in my opinion Calafiori and Jorginho can also beat them. The penalty taker is one of these here, because then when you go there on the spot they say one-two , anyone who doesn’t feel up to it must always have a spare.”
Do you think you’ll change a lot tomorrow? Is it the most important race of your career?
“This time I’ll tell you the lineup tomorrow, I won’t say it the day before because I haven’t received any news on the others about who’s playing either. It’s one of the most important matches of my career, I’ve already been through a few and this one has to be put at that level. We all have stories to tell and this is one of those matches that can determine certain stories.”
It seems like a more pragmatic Spain, could this lead to something different?
“Spain has become Spain because it has always played the same football, it has become so recognized because it has had the courage to maintain the same idea of football over time, the same demand and availability on the part of the players. Since sometimes we talk about international football, we talk about comparison with more defined football schools than ours, I say that to get to those levels you have to do as they did, always repeating the same idea of football, it will always be the attempt to play the game They have everything from the point of view of individual quality, of team characteristics. The reaction times will have to be higher and I’m curious to see when they come at us what our choices will be. In my opinion they won against Croatia they always hit in the same way and as soon as Croatia had some breaks they went inside. We have to be good at always maintaining the same level, faster reactions and still putting the quality in to take away their ability to carry you around the pitch.” .
Is your technical identity also at stake in this match?
“We are dressed by Giorgio Armani and he is known all over the world, we go there with the same dress trying to be the same. We have to maintain that crazy desire to play the match against one of the strongest football schools in the world. What what we don’t want to have are regrets for not having done our thing: it will certainly be more difficult, but we will go there dressed well and ready to get our clothes dirty if necessary.”
Don’t you have the feeling that the key to tomorrow’s match is also very technical? Aren’t we a little behind in dribbling?
“In relational there is also the technical quality that you alluded to. Then you have to be able to find that balance not only on a tactical level, ten players who just dribble can hardly be supported. Yamal is better at doing that and has less availability in the retreat. In some players you need to have both phases, for others we allow something more because we have them. But it is difficult to find a specialist to do that and that’s it: when we said that we are all a bit number 10, that was meant precisely this, now the full-backs are finishing the actions in the attacking phase. We need to do a bit of everything: the more players we have who know how to jump the man, the better, but those who jump the man must also be able to avoid getting caught. we have to fix some things, but we are on the right path: we have taken a few too many restarts, but the attempt to try to play offensive football has always been there good at doing a bit of everything. They have faster reaction times than us, they are more intense than us. But you have to put that thing in place before thinking about someone who skips the man, an aspect that comes later. Now there is a difference in reaction times and we need to maintain certain reaction times.”
What worries you most about Spain?
“I am more concerned about the level of football that we must offer, the key that opens the door to the possibility of victory is our football. I am more attentive to this situation, then it is clear that sometimes we will also have to be good at suffering the quality of Spain, but the intentions must be the right ones. We have great respect for the history and quality of Spain, but you must not think of yourself as stronger than you are because otherwise it would be a mistake. We have our chances of playing the game we’ll try to do that.”
Do you identify with Spanish football?
“It’s a type of football that I really like what Spain does, as a result they go and get things, they go and analyze things. It’s a very offensive football, they always keep a lot of tall men and we have to find the free one in a short time. The best Spanish football? Certainly one of the best but you are not the only ones. We definitely need to take steps forward.”
Is this Spain more difficult to analyze than the one that won a lot from 2008 to 2012?
“In my opinion they are very similar, it also depends a bit on who plays first striker. Morata is the best at attacking depth, Morata is not lazy. He puts up incredible numbers in terms of total meters and speed, a player like that He attacks you from depth several times. Yamal is the same, he continually reverses the action and in fact one of the difficulties we will have will be the preventative measures on their counterattacks in the open field and we need to see if we can do it.”
Should we expect a more proactive and more aggressive match?
“The attempt to press them must be made, some things need to be fixed but it always depends on where the team block is. Even if we didn’t succeed in some matches we tried not to change the reading. We have to press them and press hard, because then in the shorter times there is the possibility of playing cleaner and you have to give Spain a rush. That’s the attempt, we can’t just play on the restart. They have Rodri who you can put him anywhere and he can do it always the difference, he can make the fifth defender. While you can’t make Jorginho do that job as a fifth defender, he needs body, he is a more quality player out a performance that you have chosen and want to do”.
How did you train concreteness and cynicism?
“We’ll try to play the game and we need to be good at knowing when to make speed changes to bring home the advantage we gained with the start of the action, then when we get in front of the goalkeeper we’re already at checkers. Then you also have to score goals, but the peace of mind of almost always being able to score goals is difficult because we always have to talk about emotions, opportunities and courage. We go to make a correct analysis and then try to fix the simplicity of the execution, when we are That’s the simplest thing and it must be treated as a simple thing, otherwise it adds to the emotion that the boys have in playing this match.”
It’s the eleventh time that Spain meets Italy in a major tournament, the fifth time since 2008. Is it a derby for you?
“No, it’s not a derby. For me they are all derbies: when I play a European Championship they are all finals, all derbies, all matches that will never happen to me again. I give them the maximum attention. We will try to repeat the same match played with Albania, we want to compete against a strong team to see our level of football against one of the strongest there is. We have always tried to do this, even against strong teams in the qualifiers It’s about ball possession, if you give the ball to your opponents you’ll come out of this match badly. We’ll try to play our game and see if we’re that good or not against one of the most recognizable teams.”