Italy head coach Luciano Spalletti has berated his team’s underwhelming performance in Euro 2024 opening win over Albania.
Speaking after the match, the Scudetto winner and former Napoli manager said his side did not live up to the bidding in the match and need to improve if they want to go far in the competition.
‘‘We need to be meaner. We are neat and tidy in building things up but we need to hurt the opposition.”
Spalleti also added the team failed to dominate proceedings enough in the game, hence they have to work on improving in that area as well.
“We thought we were brilliant at keeping possession but that’s something we need to do better.
‘‘We played the game in the right way. But it’s true, the scoreline doesn’t reflect the difference between the two teams, and we risked an equaliser late on,” he added.
Italy survived an early scare in the game before completing a comeback. Albania star Bajrami scored what could be the fastest goal of the tournament when he netted in just 23 seconds of the game to give Albania the lead.
Inter Milan duo Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella would score two quickfire goals, five minutes apart, to turn the game around.
The three first-half goals were enough to separate the two sides with the game ending in a 2-1 win for the defending champions.
Speaking after the loss, Albania head coach and former Arsenal defender Sylvinho expressed his disappointment but thanked Albania fans, who turned out en masse to support the team.
‘‘I was disappointed for the result, I cannot hide my feelings. We worked 10 days straight for a win or draw.
”As head coach I need to thank all the Albanians here. I saw so many Albanians proud to have a team here, so it is a shame we couldn’t equalise but these things happen.”
Italy will take on Spain in their next fixture on June 20 while Albania clash with Croatia on June 19.
Spain edged out Croatia 3-0 in their opening kick-off and a win against the Italians will see La Roja booked a place in the knockout in the tournament – the same applies to Italy.
Albania and Croatia will hope to avoid a second straight defeat in the group which could doom their chances of qualifying for the knockouts.
