Luciano Spalletti 's side struggled to lay a glove on a well-oiled Swiss machine that outclassed the Azzurri in all departments en route to a comfortable victory at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. Without suspended defender Riccardo Calafiori , Italy fell behind in the 37th minute when Remo Freuler - on loan at Bologna last season - fired a shot past Gianluigi Donnarumma at his near post. Italy were hoping to burst out of the blocks and put their stamp on the contest after the break, but Switzerland doubled their advantage just 27 seconds after the restart courtesy of a stunning strike from Ruben Vargas into the top corner.
Spalletti threw on Mateo Retegui to join Gianluca Scamacca and Federico Chiesa in attack, but Italy's powderpuff attack could only register one of their 11 shots on target and crashed out at the last-16 stage in disappointing fashion. © Reuters Italy, four time world champions, were celebrating their second European Championship triumph just three years ago, beating England on penalties in the final at Wembley Stadium. Spalletti replaced Roberto Mancini in September last year, but he has since won only 50% of his games in charge, while the Azzurri's underwhelming performances and alarming lack of goal threat at Euro 2024 have led to widespread criticism.
Following Italy's loss to Switzerland, shown in the UK on BBC One , former England striker and presenter Gary Lineker said: "I don't think I've witnessed, in my lifetime, a worse Italian team than this." Fo.