Spalletti: ‘Carelessness’ helped Germany beat Italy, ‘four’ changes for return leg

Luciano Spalletti is not dwelling on Italy’s recent 2-1 loss to Germany, as he felt that his side created enough chances to win the game and were only beaten by a few moments of ‘carelessness’, and has confirmed that there will be ‘four changes give or take’ to the team ahead of the return leg on Sunday. 

Italy are 2-1 down at the half-way stage of their Nations League quarter-final tie against Germany. Sandro Tonali put the Azzurri in front after nine minutes in San Siro on Thursday, before a pair of second-half headers from Tim Kleindienst and Leon Goretzka handed the victory to Germany. 

The two teams will meet again at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund for the second leg on Sunday, when Italy will have to do without the likes of Riccardo Calafiori, Andrea Cambiaso and Mateo Retegui. 

Spalletti: Italy ‘had the chances to win the game’ against Germany

Assessing his team’s chances and the mood in the camp in an interview with Vivo Azzurro TV on Saturday, Spalletti said: “There are defeats that we have to move on from, and this is one. Because we accepted the challenge to play an all-out game, man for man against players of an intimidating physical level. We did it well by playing from the back and creating chances to score. 

“We suffered in some moments, but we conceded almost nothing apart from a couple of moments of carelessness. We did what we had to do and we had the chances to win the game.” 

The coach confirmed that there will be “four changes give or take” for the return leg in Dortmund on Sunday. 

“We will try to repeat the same things at the start, I’m convinced that if we manage to keep the same attitude as Thursday, the result will be different. 

“Then we have an opportunity to have a bit of creativity with some different players, who can help us individually.”