The champions are back, with a different coach, different leaders and a different style. A lot has changed in the last three years, both in the country and in the national team. Italy has elected its first female prime minister, Covid is hopefully behind us and la Nazionale is starting a new adventure without pressure.
Italy is not among the favorites in Germany, and coach Luciano Spalletti, named after the departure of Roberto Mancini from Italy to Saudi Arabia, enters the tournament as an outsider. Not a bad prospect for a man who, against all odds, won the scudetto with Naples a year ago.
The defending champions qualified after finishing second in Group C behind England, with the key match being a goalless draw against Ukraine in Germany. At Euro, Italy will face Albania, Spain and Croatia in one of the toughest groups of the tournament. “Being the defending champion is an incentive,” says Spalletti. “In, Italy was not one of the strongest teams on paper, but then it became a special team. Three years after we have to play a free football. Personally, I win if I manage to create a team.”
Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini, the defensive duo that led Italy to glory in, will be watching from home. Nicolò Barella and Gianluigi Donnarumma must step up and be the key players, in a team that is struggling to find rude solutions and that will miss the health issue quartet of Destin Udogie, Nicolò Zaniolo, Francesco Acerbi and Giorgio Scalvini.
In particular, the problem of strikers seems to be endemic in the genetics of Italian football, since they are also youth teams. Mancini won Euro with only two goals from Ciro Immobile, his title striker, and Spalletti’s search for a center forward took months. Can Gianluca Scamacca or Mateo Retegui be the heir of Paolo Rossi, Totò Schillaci, Christian Vieri and the strikers who made history in a maglia azzurrra?
Coach
Luciano Spalletti will take the national team to a major tournament for the first time. Over the past two decades, he has led Roma, Zenit, Roma again, Internazionale and Naples, winning one scudetto and two Russian titles. At 65, he has the body of a 50-year-old man and is not afraid to make unpopular decisions. Spalletti used a 3-4-2-1 and a 4-3-3 formation, an approach similar to that of Mancini during his tenure, but significantly stricter than his predecessor. In February, he made headlines when he said that he would not allow video games to his players: “when modernity is about playing the PlayStation until 4 in the morning before a game, modernity is not a good thing. A national team must be a pack of wolves. Players come to play for the national team to win the euro, not to win Call of Duty.”Pretty clear.
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Gianluigi Donnarumma, who stands still like a statue after saving Bukayo Saka’s penalty, a subtle smile on his face, is one of the iconic images of Italy’s victory at Euro. Had a good season at PSG and got used to dealing with criticism. “It’s not easy to deal with criticism, but we have to be professionals, we have to keep the balance and stay calm,” he once said. Spalletti commented: “Gigio was never forgiven for being a prodigy who was one step ahead by his talent.”Without Chiellini (retired) and Immobile (not in the team) there is something new this summer: Donnarumma at 25 will be the captain of Italy.