Italy head coach Luciano Spalletti summarised yesterday's Euro 2024 qualifying match against Northern Macedonia (1:1).
Luciano Spalletti"Difficulties started when the game became disorderly and we were not ready to ensure the reliability of the defence. As a result, in these situations the opponents often picked up balls.
Nevertheless, I think our team played a decent game. But we need to work on it, of course. We did not allow the opponent much, but we lacked patience to play the right pass when we had both time and space for it.
I had to replace some of the players who received yellow cards. But the substitutions did not work. At the same time, the opponent equalised so late in the match (on 81 minutes - editor's note) that we did not have enough time to change the situation.
Well, we have to accept the draw. The only thing left for us now is to study this match, draw conclusions from our mistakes and improve the game for the next match (against Ukraine, 12 September - editor's note).
Unfortunately, the quality of the pitch today left much to be desired. It was such that it affected many of our players and now we simply cannot avoid rotation in the match against Ukraine," Spalletti said after the match against North Macedonia.
