The Briefing: Switzerland 2 Italy 0 - Holders dumped out, Vargas stars, Yakin wins tactical battle (2024)

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Holders Italy limped into the round of 16 but their luck finally ran out against Switzerland. Luciano Spalletti’s team were outfought, outthought and outplayed in Berlin and can have no complaints they are heading home.

Switzerland were as stylish as their head coach Murat Yakin throughout but it took until the 38th minute for them to take the lead. Ruben Vargas’ ball into the box found the onrushing Remo Freuler, who controlled well and fired beyond Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Vargas doubled the lead with a brilliant curling shot 27 seconds after the break and they were never truly tested. The ramifications in Rome and beyond will be lengthy.

The Athletic’s James Horncastle, Mark Carey and Michael Cox analyse the talking points.

Why did Spalletti make so many changes?

Spalletti rotated his team and changed system again at the Olympiastadion. He has placed great emphasis on freshness and tactical flexibility over the past fortnight. But the team looked tentative and unsure of itself.

That will happen when players like Gianluca Mancini, Stephan El Shaarawy and Nicolo fa*gioli make their first starts of the tournament in Italy’s biggest game.

There was no chemistry or patterns of play from the defending champions. They walked through a lot of the game.

The newbies didn’t bring any new energy. fa*gioli, who was one of Italy’s few silver linings in the first half, missed seven months of the season after serving a ban for betting on football. He lacks match rhythm.

Bryan Cristante and Mancini are Stakhanovites in a Roma team that has gone deep in European competitions for three years in a row. But even if they were in fine fettle from a physical point of view, the timidity of yet another new starting XI inhibited it.

Their Swiss counterparts, by contrast, know each other inside out and it showed. Italy are a team in transition but they did not need to look this halting and nervous either. For a fourth straight game they fell behind. As was the case against Croatia, they conceded early in the second half too. That’s on Spalletti.

James Horncastle

Yakin’s tactics were spot on

With Spalletti ringing the changes, Italy’s lack of cohesion in and out of possession was made more stark by how organised Switzerland were throughout.

The Swiss were particularly tenacious out of possession, finding different ways to force Italy into mistakes and regain possession during their build-up.

At times they pickpocketed Italy high up the field, and in others they shepherded them into central areas towards more Swiss bodies, or they simply used the touchline as an extra defender and watched on as Italy suffocated themselves with the lack of space they curated as they looked to build through the thirds.

It was a choreographed plan from Yakin. The trio of Breel Embolo, Vargas, and Fabian Rieder were steering Italian players into danger with their team-mates behind them going man-for-man in the supporting press.

It screamed of a settled national team who understand how one another operate. Italy were sloppy in possession but a lot of that was down to the workrate of their opponents.

Mark Carey

Vargas will surely have big clubs watching?

From the opening moments of their first match at this competition — a comfortable win over Hungary — Switzerland’s greatest area of threat has been obvious: the left flank.

Down that side, they don’t simply boast good players but also clever rotations and intelligent movement. Left-sided centre-back Ricardo Rodriguez goes wide. Left wing-back Michel Aebischer drifts inside. And, most crucially, inside-left Vargas can dart inside and outside, varying his position and keeping the opposition guessing.

Vargas was the star here, assisting the first goal for Freuler, just as he did for the winner in Switzerland’s final group game of World Cup 2022 against Serbia. He then curled home the second after some typical Swiss interplay with three players down the left.

Like many of this Swiss side — Rodriguez and Xherdan Shaqiri being two other obvious examples — Vargas always seems to come alive at international level after periods of mediocrity for his club. He’s managed just eight Bundesliga goals in the last three seasons combined at midtable Augsburg. After this performance in Berlin, however, he’s certainly made his mark in Germany.

Michael Cox

Is Xhaka in the form of his career?

Granit Xhaka’s confidence must be the highest it has been in his career.

Coming off the back of an invincible domestic season with Bayer Leverkusen, the 31-year-old seamlessly carried his form into his national team and continues to be the metronome of his side.

When the game needs speeding up, Xhaka is the one to punch the ball through the lines and find a team-mate ahead of him. When the temperature needs to be cooled, it is Switzerland’s captain who will put his studs on the ball, recycle possession, and exude a calmness that ripples across the team.

No player on the field played more than Xhaka’s 98 passes against Italy, which underpins just how much influence he had on the contest.

He might not be the man to play that final pass or take that final shot, but you can be sure that Switzerland’s captain has his fingerprints on anything that his side do well going forward.

Mark Carey

Did Donnarumma deserve more?

One player who does return to Italy with his head held high is captain Donnarumma. The Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper was player of the tournament three years ago and was Italy’s best player in Germany.

Without him, the defending champions might not have even progressed from the group. Italy’s only win of the tournament against Albania was saved by his armpit in stoppage time, which denied Rey Manaj an equaliser.

The 25-year-old ensured a 1-0 defeat to Spain didn’t turn into a humiliation, making eight saves. He palmed away a penalty from Luka Modric against Croatia and did his best to make the defending champions’ exit at the hands of Switzerland as dignified as possible in Berlin.

The towering ‘Gigione’ thwarted Embolo in a one-v-one and turned a wicked Fabian Rieder free kick on to the post.

Donnarumma remains Italy’s only world-class player, the rock upon whom Spalletti has yet to build anything other than a castle made of sand.

James Horncastle

What did the managers say?

Spalletti said: “The results have said that we need to change things. That’s been the footballing verdict, and I’ll be forced to do so.”

When asked if he was the right man for the job, he said: “That question is only natural, don’t feel guilty about asking me that question, but it comes to the crux of that matter. It doesn’t change anything for me; I have responsibility for what happened, I picked the players, and this is part of a process where I have to get to know players.

“I’m not happy with the performance. I wasn’t happy with performance against Spain, I am partially happy with the other two matches we played but we were under par tonight and against Spain. On the other occasion I thought it was down to me having barked at them at training. This time I rested them and changed the team, whereas in the previous game I blamed it on myself regardless of general team selection. But it also came down to how our league season ended, but otherwise it always looks like you’re clutching at straws and looking for excuses.”

Yakin said: “We won a hugely important game and that’s what matters. Yes we won, but it was the way we played that matters. We dominated every area of the pitch and we scored goals at the right time. I am not looking ahead. It’s important to take time to savour these results we have been achieving.

“We have the right shape, we have the right game plan and we are a good team. But we need to keep our feet on the ground. The mood in the camp is excellent and we can focus on our football with no distractions from outside.

“Experiencing all this with the national team is absolutely fantastic. We have played a really dominant style of play and been very professional in our approach to every task. What we love about this sport is being with the players, being with the staff. You experience so many things in football and I cannot thank football enough for that.”

Recommended reading

• Why the group stage at Euro 2024 was the best of the tournament’s 24-team era
• Euros group phase analysed: Fast starts, back threes and why so many own goals?
• What we learned from the group games – Ronaldo, Hala Madrid and big-man denial
• A glorious gut punch, pig heads and acid jazz: Euros national anthems – rated

(Top photo: Vargas is mobbed after his stunning goal. RONNY HARTMANN/AFP via Getty Images))