Italy coach Luciano Spalletti commented on the 2:1 draw with Albania that his players should be more aggressive and direct when they face Spain in their second match of the Euro 2024 group stage, BTA reports . Spalletti's team conceded the fastest goal in the European finals already in the 23rd second, but quickly recovered and turned it around for 2:1 until the 16th minute with goals from Bastoni and Barella.
"We shut out the Albania goal, but we have to appreciate the willingness to try to play football even when things got tough,”, he said. Spalletti was clear that Italy must improve for Thursday's match against Spain, who beat Croatia 3-0.
"There are a number of things we still need to improve because we were wrong in too many situations. We have to be meaner and more organized in the way we build the game, you release a man but then you have to go and hit the opponent. We thought we were brilliant at just having the ball, which didn't pose much danger to the opposition. We need to move the ball a bit quicker because we did poorly in some cases, but against Spain there will probably be chances to play more with the ball forward as they tend to be more aggressive in their press, there may be more a big playing field behind their defensive line", Spalletti also commented.