Spalletti: “It was no surprise that I passed the round”

After Italy managed to qualify for the EuroCup round of 16 with a 1-1 draw with Croatia on Monday, coach Luciano Spalletti declared that his team from the Alps “deserved to progress”.

The Azzurri coach praised his players’ work right up until the final moments, when Zaccagni scored the winning goal in the 98th minute, and called on his players to improve some aspects of their game so that they don’t suffer too much.

“We got through the rounds we deserved and we believe until the end that this is football, it’s not just about playing well or badly and these moments are decisive, even if we miss great goals because of the quality we have”, he indicated.

“We made some clean exchanges (Carrafori’s assist and Zaccagni’s goal) and put them on the back foot, that was enough. But from a defensive point of view, sometimes illogical things happen and we have to fix something, but we have to accept that we made a pass on what these kids have,” he insisted.

Spalletti also admitted that his team was below that level “in terms of the quality of play”, noting that Italy have “hardly” performed well and that “they need more balance”.

“We were weak today. We could be happy with the result, but I don’t know, we have to do more. We have players with the quality to compete in these games, but sometimes we make small mistakes, like passing the ball. Jorginho and Barella played well, and Calafiori is one of the players who can handle the ball well.”