Italy coach Luciano Spalletti believes the Azzurri’s EURO 2024 draw could have gone better, but explained that it could give them the opportunity to grow. Italy have been drawn with Spain, Croatia and Albania in Group B for the competition, which takes place in Germany next summer.
Speaking about the draw, Spalletti pointed to the need for playing a distinctive style of football in the group in order to progress, saying Italy have the potential for growth during the EURO’s:
“The draw could have gone a little better. We arrive there with humility and the awareness that we have to make progress. But we are Italy.
“Can we close the gap with the four five teams in front of us? Having a compact team that plays football that the players themselves recognise becomes fundamental. I don’t want to play speculative football, I don’t like it. I think about the importance of the love and passion involved in the sport. We have the potential to make quite an important growth. There is still a lot of time left, there are many players who can grow and be up to the task.
“It will be necessary to coax the players in this period from a mental point of view, coming to develop what we have to do in a short time as if it came from a work done from afar. I want to speak well in this period with the players, I want to bring the national team to be a club through relationships, in addition to training sessions that cannot be done”.
