Spalletti to remain Italy boss despite Euros exit

Luciano Spalletti will keep his job as Italy head coach despite his side’s poor performances at Euro 2024, with their campaign ending on Saturday in a 2-0 defeat against Switzerland in the round of 16.

Gabriele Gavrina, the head of the Italian FA, confirmed the d4ecision in a news conference on Sunday.

“Spalletti has our full trust and we will move forward with him. It is not thinkable to change head coach and stop this project,” he said.

“This is a big disappointment. We are all responsible and we won’t abandon the project started with Spalletti.”

The former Napoli manager — who won the Serie A title in 2023 — has only been in charge of the national side for nine months. In 14 games he has seven wins, four draws and three losses. Two of those defeats were at this year’s European Championship.

In August, he signed a three year contract until September 2026 and will aim to take this team to the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“I have not been the best Spalletti possible. Yesterday we made an unacceptable step backwards,” Spalletti said.

“I think I know what is needed to fix things. I want to make the squad younger and recreating it starting from the bottom.”

Italy only qualified for the knockout stages after a miraculous last minute equaliser from Zaccagni in a 1-1 draw against Croatia in the third group-stage match.

They beat Albania 2-1 in their opening game, before being dominated by Spain despite only losing 1-0. In each of their four games at the Euros, they went behind.