Spalletti disappointed after being caught out by Musiala goal

Italy head coach Luciano Spalletti was disappointed with his players after they switched off in the first half to concede from a quickly-taken Germany corner during their 3-3 draw on Sunday.

The result meant that Germany progressed to the semi-final of the Nations League, winning the tie 5-4 on aggregate, and will now face Portugal.

For Italy, meanwhile, they were left to rue errors that saw them eliminated. The most high profile of all came midway through the first half, after Gianluigi Donnarumma had parried an effort out of play.

With the Italy team having stopped, Joshua Kimmich whipped a ball into an unmarked Musiala, who scored with a free shot on goal to put Germany 2-0 up.

“We saw that they take corners quickly and must not turn our backs,” Spalletti said of Musiala’s goal.

“It is better, in a way, to concede a goal like this, so we can realise it’s not just words of advice. There are real-life applications of what we say. We build from evaluating what happened. Games give you responses.”

Italy conceded again before half-time to go 3-0 down on the night and 5-2 behind in the tie. But Spalletti clearly elicited a response from his players, who scored three times in the second half to level the match.

3 – Joshua Kimmich was directly involved in three goals for the second time in his 99th match for Germany (1 goal, 2 assists), having previously achieved this in June 2017 against San Marino. He has been directly involved in each of Germany’s last five goals (1G, 4A). Leader. pic.twitter.com/L0BtFfNaoB

— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) March 23, 2025

The Italy coach believes that their performance as a whole warranted extra-time.

“We would have certainly deserved it, we conceded two or three situations that they exploited that had nothing to do with the level, with the strength of the teams.

“It’s that we incredibly lower our attention and allow others to be able to exploit it.”

But despite being eliminated from the Nations League, Spalletti was not in a defeatist mood regarding his team. Instead, the 66-year-old suggested that, having been through the match, his players would use it as a learning and growth opportunity.

“Matches always teach you things, they [the players] realise what they threw away,” he said.

“The match could have been played differently and both could have had a different outcome. Conceding that goal there, with everyone with their backs turned, in my opinion, you won’t concede it again after tonight. Maintaining balance after the 3-0 was not easy, it could have ended in disaster”.