Spalletti willing to switch things up after ´mistakes´ in Spain defeat

Luciano Spalletti is aiming to get Italy back to their best against Croatia at Euro 2024 on Monday after admitting to not getting things right during their defeat to Spain.

Spain secured top spot in Group B after their 1-0 victory over Italy on Thursday, with Riccardo Calafiori’s own goal handing La Roja the win in the 55th minute.

Despite the narrow scoreline, Italy struggled to test their counterparts in the final third, managing just four shots in the match, with Unai Simon only having to make one save.

Spalletti had named the same starting line-up from their comeback win over Albania but used all five of his changes by the 64th minute.

The head coach admitted even that was not soon enough for his team, but is confident Italy will bounce back on Monday.

“Of course, after a game like that, there is the notion and the idea to change the team a little bit,” Spalletti said.

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“I probably made mistakes in not mixing things up quicker in terms of the performance we produced, but I thought it would be a gamble to tweak anything because we saw everything that had been said in recent times.

“Now that we have noticed that there is a bit of fatigue and rust in terms of results, we certainly will change things.”

Italy know that a win will confirm second place in the group, while a defeat will either knock them out immediately if Albania beat Spain or leave them waiting to see if they can go through as one of the best third-place teams.

“There are certain matches which ultimately dictate whether it’s been a great tale or a tale to forget, so the glory of your tale comes down to matches such as this,” Spaelletti added.

“Talk is cheap, you’ve got to go out there and walk the walk. We said things we weren’t able to exhibit against Spain, we need to walk the walk and leave talk to one side.”