Today’s match was more of a story for who was absent, rather than who played.
Both Italy and Spain had several players out and in the first half of the match it definitely showed. A massive drop in quality between the two sides that took away from the spectacle of one of Europe’s most coveted rivalries.
Head coach Antonio Conte started with a 3-4-3 with Darmian, Bonucci and Astori making up the defensive trio, an interesting selection, especially with Darmian moving to a more central role. However, Conte stated before the match that he was looking for multiple players with the ability to play multiple roles. That makes a lot of sense, given how in past tournaments injuries have played a role in the Azzurri set up, and with a locked in 23 man squad you simply can’t call in another player to come in.
Darmian, in my opinion, played very well against a plethora of different Spanish attackers, although I certainly wouldn’t want him to start there with a healthy Giorgio Chiellini or Andrea Barzagli available.
The midfield was a bit tricky, however Conte was able to overwhelm Vincente Del Bosque’s men with a quadrant that featured Florenzi and Giaccherini on the wings with Parolo and Thiago Motta in the center. Surprisingly, we saw that Thiago Motta is in fantastic shape and could be the Daniele De Rossi replacement should Conte give the Roma player the snub.
In the likely scenario that Conte calls up one of Andrea Pirlo, Thiago Motta or Daniele De Rossi, the Brazil born Motta made a strong case for his inclusion this summer with the Azzurri.
Alessandro Florenzi and Emanuele Giaccherini made a strong impression today and will most likely both be on the plane to France this summer.
The real story tonight is how much of an impact Lorenzo Insigne made. Besides scoring the lone Azzurri goal this evening, the Napoli forward completely changed the flow of the attack for the Italians and was a clear and present step up from Eder. Tonight’s makeshift Azzurri didn’t have a real creative and threatening forward on the starting lineup, but when he came on the field in the 50th minute, it was game on.
Another strong performance tonight came from Lazio winger Antonio Candreva, he tested David De Gea in the first half and caused problems down the Spanish flank the whole time he was on the pitch. With performances like this, he shouldn’t have to worry about his place on the roster come June.
Federico Bernardeschi had a good cameo tonight as well, he caused problems with his link-up play and runs in the second half, he nearly even assisted Lorenzo Insigne for a second goal. Bernardeschi doesn’t have a lot of time to make a strong case for his inclusion on the final roster, but if he can perform like this against Germany, Scotland and Finland, he may have an outside shot.
Lorenzo De Silvestri and Jorginho came onto the pitch in the 88th minute, naturally they didn’t have much time to offer anything significant but the news with them is De Silvestri was able to return from an ACL injury and Jorginho made his senior Azzurri debut.
Although the scoreline wasn’t entirely in Italy’s favor, a dominating performance over Spain will do the Nazionale a world of good in their preparations for the Euro 2016 finals.
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