The abject Azzurri suffered an embarrassingly meek exit at Euro 2024, losing 2-0 in Berlin to a vastly superior Switzerland side
Italy's reign as champions of Europe is over - and about time too. The Azzurri may have illuminated Euro 2020 with their uncharacteristically adventurous style of play but their title defence in Germany has been seriously tough to watch. Indeed, the one good thing about their Euro 2024 campaign is that it was brought to a mercifully premature end by Switzerland on Saturday evening, with Murat Yakin's side sealing a fully deserved spot in the quarter-finals with a shockingly comfortable 2-0 win.
Remo Frueler took advantage of some non-existent Italian tracking to give the Swiss the lead just eight minutes before the break, as the defending champions fell behind the fourth time in four games in this tournament. The Swiss struck again immediately after the interval, with the impressive Ruben Vargas given all the time in the world to pick his spot before bending the ball past the completely unprotected Gigi Donnarumma and into the top corner of the Azzurri net.rates all of the Italy players on show as Luciano Spalletti's side were dumped out of the Euros with embarrassing ease by the Swiss, who will now face the winners of England's last-16 meeting with Slovakia...