Luis de la Fuente and Luciano Spalletti both agreed that Spain were the superior side and they deserved to beat Italy at the 2024 European Championship on Thursday.
A 55th-minute own goal by Riccardo Calafiori settled the Group B game at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen as Spain progressed to the round of 16.
Meanwhile, defending champions Italy will need to avoid defeat in their final Group B game against Croatia on Monday to advance.
Spalletti, in his assessment, disclosed that the Azzurri performed below par and did not compete to challenge for the three points
“They played as a team, we could not do that. They deserved to win despite the result. We could not be in the match apart from the last 20 minutes,” the Italy coach said.
“We never created the right situations to keep the pace with a football of this level. Despite the technical qualities of Williams and Jamal, times of reactions between the two teams were too different.
“This gap put us in the condition to suffer their game. As a result, we made many mistakes, including many easy passes. These errors have a common denominator, they (Spain) were fresher than us.”
Spain, on their part, dominated the game at the Veltins-Arena but lacked final touch to increase their lead with Nico Williams, Lamine Yamal, Alvaro Morata and Ayoze Perez coming close to scoring in the game.
De la Fuente said: “Situations can take a heat during a game but nothing happened, I have great respect admiration for Luciano Spalletti.
“I think there has also been something more than physical. Surely football is physical and of course about technical and tactical condition.
“And I believe that in all football areas we have been superior. But above all I say it above all to highlight how difficult it is to face a team like the Italian one. A great team that today has been minimized but because of the virtues and the game and the success of another great team, the Spanish team.”
