Coach Luciano Spalletti has taken responsibility for Italy's poor performance and early exit from the European Football Championship. The champions from three years ago lost 0:2 to Switzerland in the first round of 16, BTA reported.
"I am responsible for what happened because I choose the team. I'm not happy with our performance tonight, I wasn't happy with the Spain game either. There were more positives in the other two matches. I rested some of the starters and changed some things in the team because I wanted to maintain the intensity in the game," said Spalletti, quoted by uefa.com.
"In this tournament we tried different things and in the end the bottom line is that changes are needed. The result is not as outrageous as people will make it out to be. We managed to get out of the group, but I didn't see a team with style today. We couldn't keep up with the opponent's pace and couldn't win the ball. Even when we did, we lost it too quickly afterwards.
Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma added that the Italian internationals realize they have let their fans down with their lackluster performance. "It hurts to be eliminated like this and we apologize to our fans. Today we disappointed and Switzerland deserved the win. It was difficult for us throughout the game and in the first half we lost possession too easily and left them big spaces. "It will be hard to swallow this defeat," he said.