Switzerland v Italy LIVE: Final score and result as Ruben Vargas goal knocks champions out of Euro 2024
Switzerland 2-0 Italy: Goals from Freuler and Vargas ensure Italy’s title defence ends in the first knockout round
Italy, the reigning European champions, are out of Euro 2024 after a shockingly poor performance saw them beaten 2-0 by Switzerland in Berlin.
From the start the Swiss dominated. They controlled possession, pressed high and turned the ball over inside Italy’s half regularly. However, there seemed to be a missing ingredient for them as it took 24 minutes for Breel Embolo to draw the first save out of Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Yet when the deadlock was broken, Remo Freuler making a run from deep to collect the ball and smoke it past the goalkeeper from inside the box, Switzerland never looked back.
Ruben Vargas added an all important second goal just 27 seconds into the second half with a curling screamer and when Granit Xhaka leading from the middle of the pitch they stopped Italy from gaining a foothold to mount a response.
Relive the latest action from Switzerland vs Italy below.
Switzerland starting XI
Switzerland XI: Sommer; Schar, Akanji, Rodriguez; Vargas, Freuler, Xhaka, Aebischer; Rieder, Embolo, Ndoye
Luciano Spalletti previews the match:
Italy’s head coach said: “We know we are up against very awkward customers in Switzerland. We have not managed to show all our potential so far, or maybe we only did so for a few moments.
“We deserved to qualify, even if we needed a last-gasp goal, but we need to take it up a step, especially in terms of personality.”
England fans to be served normal-strength beers during Euro 2024 last-16 match
England supporters will be served normal-strength beer during Sunday’s Euro 2024 last-16 match against Slovakia in Gelsenkirchen but will be unable to drink alcohol in the stands.
Fans were only able to purchase low-alcohol pints when Gareth Southgate’s side took on Serbia in their Group C opener at the Veltins-Arena in the German city on June 16.
Fan group the Free Lions Fan Embassy welcomed the eased restrictions, but is disappointed about some of the other measures set to be in place.
England fans to be served normal-strength beers during Euro 2024 last-16 match
Supporters were only able to purchase low-alcohol pints during England’s previous visit to the Veltins-Arena.
Anthony Gordon vows to mark Euros goal with cycling celebration after bike crash
Anthony Gordon has promised to do a cycling celebration if he scores at Euro 2024 after the England forward was left covered in grazes following a bike accident.
The Newcastle winger came out to train on Thursday morning with cuts to his nose, chin, hands and knees and it later transpired he had crashed off an electric bike a day earlier.
Gordon admitted he had been trying to record a video message for his family when he hit the dirt and avoided what could have been a serious injury.
Anthony Gordon vows to mark Euros goal with cycling celebration after bike crash
The England winger was left with grazes after falling off his bike during a recovery bike ride.
Italy’s route to the final
Italy needed a dramatic 98th-minute equaliser against Croatia from Mattia Zaccagni to seal second place in Group B.
“We’re going step by step,” said forward Mateo Retegui afterward. “We’ll play against another strong team in Switzerland but we want to win and go forward.”
These two sides met in the group stage of Euro 2020, with Italy running out 3-0 winners in Rome. Switzerland are full of confidence though and could easily spring a surprise on the holders.
Switzerland’s route to the last-16
Switzerland comfortably progressed from Group A and remained unbeaten and even though they finished behind Germany thanks to a stoppage-time Niclas Fullkrug equaliser from the hosts in their final game.
Murat Yakin’s side certainly don’t appear overawed by any opponents they face and will have no fear against holders Italy in Berlin.
“The first step is done,” captain Granit Xhaka said. “We’re looking forward to the next round and our next opponents. I hope everyone has a little bit more respect for Switzerland now.”
Forget the group stage – Euro 2024 starts now
Given that over 70 per cent of the matches were used to eliminate just a third of the field, the modern group stage is almost less a final qualifying round than a warm-up. Except, this group stage has considerably conditioned how Euro 2024 now looks. It may also decide it.
If concentration of quality used to be the Euros’ best feature, there has never been so much quality concentrated on one side. It is arguably the most lopsided any international knockout stage has ever been, if also strikingly similar to last season’s Champions League. Germany, Spain, France and Portugal probably looked the best possible semi-final quartet after the second round of games, but only two can make it that far. They’re all on that side, which also features the story of the tournament in Georgia, a recent contender in Belgium, as well one of the highly capable mid-tier teams in Denmark. Slovenia, as we have seen, aren’t exactly easy to play.
There are some obvious consequences to this. Big teams are going to go out early. Those who make it through could be exhausted.
Forget the group stage – Euro 2024 starts now
Pretty much every Euro 2024 contender is deeply flawed, explains Miguel Delaney, but a lopsided draw means anything can happen as the tournament now begins in earnest
Forget the group stage – Euro 2024 starts now
Pretty much every Euro 2024 contender is deeply flawed, explains Miguel Delaney, but a lopsided draw means anything can happen as the tournament now begins in earnest.
Spain are the only top side at Euro 2024 largely satisfied with how their group stage went, but everyone else would still nod along to manager Luis De La Fuente’s message. That is to basically forget everything that has happened so far.
It’s a feeling deepened by the first real break of the tournament, following an intense start. After some squads packed three matches into eight days, teams like Austria now wait a full week for their next fixture. Managers have been glad of that, to the point it almost represents a break in the tournament, too.
“It is a new competition starting for us,” French manager Didier Deschamps said. It might almost be called the real European Championships now, right down to how it features just 16 teams in the way it used to. “We’ll see the real potential of every team,” De La Fuente added.
Part of Spalletti’s task is to conjure goals from a relatively limited group. It offers parallels with the recent past. Since their triumph in Berlin at the 2006 World Cup, in the last major tournament on German soil, Italy have endured misadventures in World Cups and qualifying alike. But they have excelled in the last three European Championships, each time aided by the tactical acumen of a high-class manager. Roberto Mancini won Euro 2020, aided by a progressive 4-3-3 shape. Cesare Prandelli’s use of a diamond midfield helped them to the final of Euro 2012.
But a more pertinent precedent may be Euro 2016: Then, as now, Italy lacked the calibre of player to make them plausible winners. They nevertheless looked the best-coached team until exiting in a quarter-final penalty shootout defeat. The manager then, Antonio Conte, is now Spalletti’s latest successor at Napoli. For the latest Azzurri manager, the challenge is to produce a similar alchemy, to find a formula from another group without superstars.
Conte, too, is no stranger to outbursts, a manager to see enemies whether or not there are any. Spalletti can seem a stylistic opposite on the pitch: more of a purist, less of a pragmatist. But an aesthete has shown his combative side in a different arena. One of the more fascinating characters in a Euro 2024 dugout, Spalletti has shown his spiky side. Now to see if he can turn Italy into a winning side.
Luciano Spalletti: The Italy manager trying to win Euro 2024 one outburst at a time
There are reasons to explain that mixed start; in turn, that prompted some of the criticism of Spalletti. He admitted making a mistake by retaining the 11 starters who beat Albania against Spain; the stories about the changes he would then make against Croatia prompted some of the subsequent breakdown in relations with the media. Spalletti took offence at the suggestions his players talked him into his team selection, objecting to the use of the word “pact”.
A row can be revealing for other elements. If Spalletti is still searching for his finest team, that is understandable. He only took over last summer. He lost Sandro Tonali to a ban for gambling. Nicolo Fagioli has served his, but that rendered him ineligible for matches during the season. He lost defenders Francesco Acerbi and Giorgio Scalvini just before the tournament.
Spalletti has had to adapt and adjust. Riccardo Calafiori, who was uncapped at the start of the month, has emerged as one of the most impressive centre-backs of the group stage. But Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Spalletti’s captain at Napoli, was savaged by Nico Williams in the Spain game. Spalletti switched from a back four to 3-5-2, a formation he played at Empoli and which was the subject of his dissertation at the Italian coaching school at Coverciano.
It illustrated his versatility. He is associated with 4-6-0, with Francesco Totti a false nine for an inventive, attacking Roma side; at Napoli, he prospered with a 4-3-3. Yet Italy do not have forwards of the calibre of Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia; the only man in Spalletti’s squad with a double-figure tally of international goals is midfielder Nicolo Barella. He seems unconvinced by Gianluca Scamacca. Winger Federico Chiesa is yet to recapture his Euro 2020 form. Spalletti argued he finished with six forwards against Croatia. Zaccagni, one of the less heralded, delivered.
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