Italy tasted defeat for the first time at Euro 2024, against Spain in Gelsenkirchen, but nothing is compromised. To get through to the round of 16 in second place, behind tonight's winners, a draw will be enough on Monday in Leipzig against Croatia, given the advantage in the head-to-head clash with Albania, who face the Spaniards in their final group game. Spalletti's team, however, did little to worry Spain, who were far superior across the 90 minutes, with the Azzurri kept in it by some superb Donnarumma's saves, as well as the crossbar. It is a second loss in the coach's tenure, following a 3-1 defeat by England at Wembley on 17 October 2023.

"We saw too much of Spain, they were fresher than us," analysed Spalletti. "We were too late reading things. The key to the problem is the same: we were below par in reacting, finding space, getting back to deeper positions. They were fresher and created us problems in their speed of decision making; when three or four fresher players came on, we put more high balls and created some situations that could have led us to equalise, but they were much stronger than us and deservedly won. Croatia? It's up to us, as always, to make the difference; it depends on how we come into the game, with our choices. If we don't have choices, it'll be difficult."

THE MATCH. Spalletti named an unchanged starting eleven that beat Albania, with only one change for De La Fuente's side: Laporto replacing Nacho in the middle of the defence. After a minute's silence in memory of the former UEFA general secretary, Gerhard Aigner, who passed away just a few hours before the match, it was Spain who came closest to taking the lead: Pedri forcing Donnarumma into his first great save of the match, from Williams' cross in from the left. A similar scene came in the tenth minute, with the Athletic Bilbao winger this time in the centre of the area on the end of Morata's cross, but his header was glanced just wide. Italy were looking to play on the counter, but were in danger again in the 24th minute: Yamal's weaving run forward saw him play in Morata, whose right-footed shot was stopped by the feet of Donnarumma. But that was nothing compared to the stunning tip over he made from Fabian Ruiz's strike from distance. The former Napoli midfielder hit one again on target in the 42nd minute, only for Donnarumma to gather comfortably. The first and only Italian effort in the first half fell to Chiesa in the closing stages, but his right-footed shot flew well over.

Two changes for Spalletti at half time: Jorginho and Frattesi were subbed for Cristante and Cambiaso, with the Roma player booked after less than a minute and Chiesa moved out to the left. It was on the opposite side, however, that the first real threat came for Italy: Williams saw Cucurella's run forward, whose low cross found Pedri, but he shot wide with his right. However, in the 55th minute the deserved Spanish lead came: following Nico Williams' cross and Morata's flicked header, Donnarumma's fingertip touch led to Calafiori unfortunately turning it into his own net with his knee. Morata forced Donnarumma into another save, before Cambiaso cleared Le Normand's header off the line from a Williams corner; finally, Yamal struck a great left-footed effort just wide of the post. Spalletti, in the 64th minute, took off Chiesa and Scamacca and brought on Zaccagni and Retegui. But after a low cross in from the right by Cristante that Retegui couldn't get on the end of, Spain came close to doubling their lead through Nico Williams' shot, which crashed against the crossbar. Towards the end, Raspadori also came on for Pellegrini, but the result stayed the same, once again thanks to Donnarumma, who denied Ayoze Perez twice.

SPAIN 1-0 ITALY (h.t. 0-0)
SPAIN (4-3-3): Unai Simon; Carvajal, Le Normand, Laporte, Cucurella; Pedri (71' Alex Baena), Rodri, Fabian Ruiz (90+3' Merino); Yamal (71' Ferran Torres), Morata (77' Oyarzabal), Williams (77' Perez). Unused subs.: Raya, Remiro, Nacho, Vivian, Joselu, Dani Olmo, Grimaldo, Zubimendi, Jesus Navas, Fermin Lopez. Coach: De La Fuente

ITALY (4-2-3-1): Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Bastoni, Calafiori, Dimarco; Barella, Jorginho (46' Cristante); Frattesi (46' Cambiaso), Pellegrini (82' Raspadori), Chiesa (64' Zaccagni); Scamacca (64' Retegui). Unused subs: Vicario, Meret, Buongiorno, Gatti, Darmian, Bellanova, Mancini, Fagioli, El Shaarawy, Folorunsho. Coach: Spalletti

Scorer: 55' Calafiori (O.G.)

Referee: Vinčić (Slovenia). Assistants: Klančnik, Kovačič (Slovenia). Fourth official: Turpin (France)

Bookings: Donnarumma (I), Rodri (S), Le Normand (S), Carvajal (S)

Calafiori and Pellegrini one booking away from a suspension

UEFA EURO 2024 - GROUP B
Matchday 1
Spain 3-0 Croatia
ITALY 2-1 Albania

Matchday 2
Croatia 2-2 Albania
Spain 1-0 ITALY
Table: Spain 6, ITALY 3, Albania, Croatia 1

Matchday 3
Monday 24 June
21:00 CEST: Croatia vs. Italy (Leipzig)
21:00 CEST: Albania vs. Spain (Dusseldorf)