Luciano Spalletti is not Swifty. “I’m an old man,” he told the RDS radio station a few years ago. “I like Italian singers. Luca Barbarossa, and Camaleonti. The Tramp is one of my favorite songs. Old things.” Even so, Spalletti endured an incredibly Cruel Summer.
He called it “bruttissima”. Terrible. “I’ve been coaching for 30 years and I’ve never seen a team of mine so lacking in battle as it unfortunately happened (at the Euros) in Germany.”
After Italy’s bloodless defeat to Switzerland in Berlin, Spalletti tried to mitigate for the exit of the holders in the round of 16. He argued that Inter winning the Scudetto with five games to spare hardly helped. Rather than going into the tournament fresher, the core of his team was not as sharp as he would have liked. Too many players are not used to high tempo football and the skill required to play it. He made a recommendation: go abroad.
Spalletti directs from the touchline at Parc des Princes (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
In gray and windswept Paris on Friday night, nine of the starting XI he picked for Italy’s Nations League opener against France were still based in Italy. At first, it felt like nothing had changed. Twenty-three seconds into Italy’s Euro opener against Albania in June, a careless throw-in from Federico Dimarco allowed Nedim Bajrami to score the fastest goal in tournament history. Italy had never conceded so early.
Until, that is, Bradley Barcola showed he had seen the tape of what Nico Williams did to Giovanni Di Lorenzo in Spain’s win in Gelsenkirchen and copied it. He went past the Napoli captain and gave France the lead after just 13 seconds. The goal happened so quickly that Italy’s captain and goalkeeper Gigio Donnarumma was caught unawares. He was still recovering from hugging a member of staff when Di Lorenzo lost the ball and didn’t even wake up his gloves.
Spalletti smoothed his eyebrows in disbelief. All he could do was grin and bear it as France’s Rive Gauche looked like it was once again home to Picasso, Sartre, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. For 10 minutes, Di Lorenzo seemed football illiterate in their company. But then Italy started to play. The 3-5-1-1 Spalletti worked on in March, then partially and unexpectedly abandoned at the Euros, is back. After Italy settled, it was clear that they had a better plan than France.
Torino midfielder Samuele Ricci, who made the provisional squad for the Euros but not the final cut, swapped positions with central defender Riccardo Calafiori. Arsenal’s new signing was nominally on the left of Italy’s back three where his teammate, Alessandro Bastoni, plays for Inter. But Ricci’s clever rotations allowed Calafiori to play and create overloads everywhere; at full-back, as a number 6, then as a number 8. When Ricci dropped in, Bastoni was able to shuffle across to his preferred side.
Calafiori passes Michael Olise (Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
There was more energy in midfield. Andrea Cambiaso, a total Juventus footballer, cut left from the right side where Federico Chiesa sometimes plays for the Azzurri. Spalletti allowed Chiesa to stay and train with Liverpool following his deadline day move from Juventus. Switches between Cambiaso and Dimarco pulled France everywhere and created the time and space for runners into the box.
A diagonal from Cambiaso to Dimarco came right back to him as Italy went right-to-left and back again through Lorenzo Pellegrini in the number 10 role. His lovely arcing cross for Cambiaso at the far post was nodded back for Davide Frattesi to score from point-blank range. Somehow the ripped blonde hit the bar. It came at a time when France was on top. As an opportunity, it felt like an exception. But another came and then another. The recipient of another switch, Dimarco combined with Sandro Tonali, his old cross-town rival, whose back heel assist set up a lavish volley for the equaliser.
It was a goal good enough to make the Mona Lisa smile and Tonal-dinho’s role in it was touching after all he had been through.
The unofficial Wetherspoons ambassador often snuck in behind the French midfield to receive passes and in the final third and, if the ball didn’t stick, he quickly won it back. Tonali also powered forward, denying Warren Zaire-Emery when he burst into the box in the 83rd minute. After nearly a year on the sidelines, his mix of silky touches and steel gears stood out
“He played a magnificent game,” Spalletti said. “We were a bit worried that he wouldn’t be able to last 90 minutes, but in the closing stages he made a couple of driving runs and almost got through a goal. We have a great player back.”
The imperious Sandro Tonali (Xavier Laine/Getty Images)
As encouraging as the “Midfield Maestro from Milan” was (note to the Gallowgate End, he is a Geordie from Lodi), Tonali was not man of the match. Calafiori’s courage helped Italy overcome France until the wild horse came limping from an injury. Ricci grew in confidence as the game wore on, dribbling under pressure inside his own penalty area before launching a ball that, from a recovered second ball, started the move that led to Italy’s second goal.
“You already knew what Tonali could do,” Spalletti said. “Ricci, on the other hand, played a different role than what he was used to at Torino and was fearless.”
Giacomo Raspadori, the top scorer in Spalletti’s tenure, lost his place to his old Sassuolo teammate Gianluca Scamacca on the eve of the Euros. But he came on as a sub at half-time here and made an immediate impact. Along with Mateo Retegui, as he did in Italy’s one euphoric moment against Croatia in Leipzig, he pounced on a loose ball that the Argentinian-Italian was driven by Milan’s new midfielder Youssef Fofana, played a pass to him and then watched as a cut-back found its way to the onrushing Frattesi for Italy’s second.
Back-up for Inter, who continue to present big goals (see the Ukraine game in the Euro qualifiers), Frattesi could have had a hat-trick at Parc des Princes. Denied by the crossbar in the first half, only a miraculous save from Mike Maignan stopped a glancing header from a corner going in.
Frattesi then went off injured, second victim of the night, and was replaced by Tottenham’s Destiny Udogie, another player who, like Tonali, missed the Euros. Udogie played 20 minutes in midfield before returning to left back. He would also play a role in Italy’s clincher. Udogie brought down another Cambiaso switch and kicked before making an inside pass to Raspadori, who managed to do what few attacking players can; he certainly made unfortunate William Saliba look a little foolish. His Romario-esque finish made it 3-1.
Italy celebrates comeback win (Tnani Badreddine/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
It was the first victory of Italy in France for 70 years. The Azzurri have not beaten a top nation under Spalletti before. They have not won a point since England two years ago, when Raspadori scored the only goal at San Siro in another Nations League match. In the context of the Swiss collapse two months ago, the victory at the Parco was a major surprise, not least because Didier Deschamps presented a strong side. So where was this performance in Germany?
“It’s the start of the season,” Spalletti said in explanation. “The players are fresher than they were at the end of last season.”
The hope is that the Premier League contingent of Tonali, Calafiori and Udogie benefit more from their experiences in England. The first two could play as regularly as Udogie does at Tottenham. Then there is Chiesa, who will find it difficult to find a role in this system and displace an intelligent, two-footed all-rounder like Cambiaso, who has taken his place at Juventus and with Italy.
For 75 minutes in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, there was a late and belated glimpse of what Spalletti might be capable of with time and patience. Currently it is one game. It is the League of Nations. But thankfully it could also be the end of Spalletti’s brutal summer.
(Top photo: Tnani Badreddine/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
