Italy ´on the right track´ despite France defeat – Spalletti

Luciano Spalletti believes Italy are “on the right track” despite the Azzurri ending their Nations League campaign with a 3-1 defeat to France on Sunday.

Adrien Rabiot scored twice and Guglielmo Vicario put through his own net as Les Bleus triumphed at San Siro, with all three goals coming from Lucas Digne set-pieces.

Italy had already confirmed a top-two finish by beating Belgium 1-0 three days earlier, however, so they will join France in the quarter-finals next March.

Despite the result, there were plenty of positives for Spalletti to take from Italy’s performance, as his team enjoyed more possession (53.8%), shots (10 to six), expected goals (0.59 xG to 0.39) and touches in the opposition box (20 to eight) than their opponents.

“I believe that we are on the right track, I saw many things we sought in the correct way, but we were influenced by the emotion of the match, we forced the match,” he said.

“In the second half the game was managed well, we often had the ball but we have to be cleaner with our ball management.

“The analysis is certainly positive, it is clear that there is something to review. When we return, the group will do this.”

Italy were undone by some excellent dead-ball taking from Aston Villa full-back Digne, though, and Spalletti knows they must be more competitive on a physical level in the future.

“The boys wanted to go and challenge the opponent, there you spend energy. The third set-piece created problems for us, then we tried to react to score again, but they are physical,” he said.

“Now we will review the situations well, they are one of the strongest teams there is from a physical point of view.”