Defending champions were obliterated by Spain but head coach will not be deterred from his ambitious vision Luciano Spalletti wanted his Italy team to make memories against Spain. “We all have our stories we like to share,” he said pre-game. “The players will see when they get to my age; they will need tales of their own to tell. This is a game that could give them one.” Those players came away with a horror story. Spain obliterated the defending champions, a 1-0 scoreline greatly understating their superiority. Perhaps one day Giovanni Di Lorenzo will get some mileage from recounting the time he was run ragged by a young Nico Williams, and Riccardo Calafiori might laugh about the own goal he scored in his fourth Italy appearance. Right now, their focus will be on changing their fortunes at this tournament. Continue reading...

PSG player has tended to be overlooked during six years in the national team, but he is moving on to a higher plane His name is Fabián but you can call him, erm, Fabián. On the night before Spain faced Italy, the first thing the midfielder was asked in the pre-match press conference was how he should be addressed. Which might sound like a stupid question – sitting before them was a man who has commanded €90m in transfer fees and has been in the national team for six years, not some unknown – but it wasn’t, and if anyone was to blame it was Luis de la Fuente. As for not some unknown, that was the point. “If he wasn’t called Fabián,” the coach had insisted, “you would talk about him much more.” So, what then? Fabinho? Fabiano? Fabianski? Or maybe like César Azpilicueta you could just call him Dave. “Fabián,” Fabián said. “That’s my name. I’m proud of my name, and being Spanish.” Continue reading...

Luis de la Fuente says there is no team better than Spain after they beat Italy 1-0 on Thursday to make it two wins from two and book their place in the knockout rounds of Euro 2024.

Luis de la Fuente had described Spain v Italy as a clásico, a game that could easily be a final; watching this, he might have been half right. The team he coaches beat Italy by an own goal, scored by Riccardo Calafiori, to win the Group of Death with a match to spare but that doesn’t tell the story, nor begin to express the way they took Italy apart. The surprise was not that Luciano Spalletti’s side had lost here but that they did so narrowly, somehow alive to the last. Spain are in the next round; if they continue to play like this, they will surely go further too. Reaching the final, on this evidence, is no fantasy. The concern may be that a destruction so complete did not deliver a more comfortable victory, but what a performance this was, 20 shots fired off, 50 attacks launched, and illustrious opponents taken to pieces from the first minute to the last, when Ayoze Pérez came on and twice almost made it two. One would have to do, somehow. Continue reading...

Updates from the 8pm BST kick-off in GelsenkirchenRead Euro 2024 Daily | Player interactive | Email Scott “We wear Giorgio Armani. We’ll go out there in our Sunday best. And we’ll be willing to actually scuff up our beautiful suits if required.” Italy coach Luciano Spalletti there, with a none-more-Italian response to being asked whether his team are prepared to mix it tonight if needs be. The elegant threads on display in Gelsenkirchen confirm the first part of the bargain has been kept … … so it just remains to be seen if Italy’s play can be as stylish, and whether tonight’s match between two old enemies descends into the rough-house. Here’s hoping! / Won’t somebody think of the kids? [delete according to preference] Though as characteristically chic as Italy’s 2024 duds are, they can never ever be quite as stylish as the 1982 cut. They just can’t, and we don’t write the rules. Continue reading...