Italy head coach Luciano Spalletti has promised to make changes to his side ahead of their final Euro 2024 group stage fixture against Croatia after conceding he did not tweak things soon enough during the defeat to Spain last time out.
Italy came from behind to beat Albania in their tournament opener and Spalletti named an unchanged team for Thursday’s match against Spain.
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However, he made two substitutions at the break and admitted at full time his side “were never in the game aside from in the final 20 minutes” following a 1-0 loss, with Italy registering just one shot on target to Spain’s nine.
“Of course after a game like that, there is the notion and the idea to change the team a little bit,” Spalletti said. “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.”
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Left-back Federico Dimarco had been an availability concern after training individually ahead of the Croatia match and Spalletti was positive about his chances of featuring but said he would face a late fitness test on Monday.
“Dimarco is fit again so he is available for selection but we will have another fitness test tomorrow morning in order to confirm,” he added.
Italy are guaranteed second spot in Group B if they avoid defeat to Croatia but will exit the competition if they lose and Albania beat Spain.
If they lose and Albania don’t win, then Spalletti’s team will come third and be left waiting on other results to see if they qualify as a best third-placed team. The Italy head coach called on his side to “walk the walk” ahead of their decisive group game.
“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 continued.
“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.”
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(Claudio Villa/Getty Images for FIGC)