Match date: 27 June 2013

Just about a year ago, Italy and Spain met one another in the Euro 2012 final and despite the criticisms facing Spain for their lack of penetrative and vertical passing throughout the tournament, they ended up beating a more attacking Italian side than most have ever seen 4-0.

Having won the World Cup in 2010, Spain’s place in this year’s Confederations Cup was already sealed and so as the runners-up in Euro 2012, Italy were given a place in the Confederation’s Cup and chances were, after the groups had been drawn, that the two sides would meet again in the semifinals and they did just that.

Prandelli has gotten Italy to play good football and he has a good amount of tactical wit about him. With that being said, he opted to setup in a 3-5-2/3-5-1-1 so as to force Spain to play in wider areas rather than look to attack through the middle.

Del Bosque, as opposed to the last time he coached Spain to a win over Italy, the Euro 2012 final, opted to play a ‘true’ number 9 in Fernando Torres.

Italy Dictate the Tempo Early

Once the game settled down in the first half, Italy began to dominate it in terms of dictating the play. It was something they really looked to do from the very beginning as well. As soon as Buffon looked to take his first goal kick, just 43 seconds into the match, after Pedro hit a host wide, Buffon played the ball out to Barzagli, just outside of the penalty area on the far side of the field. Barzagli ended up misplacing his pass into touch, but it was the intent that showed through. Italy wanted to play out of the back and they wanted to look to take control of the game.

In the picture above, you can see Spain pressing high on Italy’s goal kick, but once Italy was able to play past the first line of pressure, Spain dropped off a bit and it allowed both Daniele De Rossi and Andrea Pirlo to get on the ball and look to pick out passes behind Spain’s high line, something that they did very well, in particular De Rossi who attempted 15 long balls in the match, completing 14 of them, including Maggio’s great chance in the first half when he got in behind Jordi Alba and headed into the on-rushing Casillas.

Defensively, they looked to force Spain and Iker Casillas to play long balls on their goal kicks, which would theoretically allow Italy to win most of the headers with their height at the back.

They were also content with allowing Spain to have the ball as Spain looked relatively slow in shifting the ball from one side to the other in an attempt to open up Italy’s back three. There was a good amount of pressing from the Italian midfield and forwards when the likes of Xavi and Busquets got on the ball, but the low tempo that Spain were playing left the Italians feeling comfortable.

Maggio Down the Right

A lot of the trouble that Spain had in the first half was due to Christian Maggio down the right side of Italy’s attack. The Napoli wing back is perhaps better at attacking than he is defending and is always very keen to get to the back post on crosses when playing for Napoli.

Against Spain, he was up mostly against Jordi Alba as David Silva, who was on the left side of Spain’s forward three, drifted inside a good amount and looked to play very high up the pitch, almost next to Torres at other times. At times, the lack of Silva allowed Italy to create a 2v1 situation with both Maggio and Candreva both occupying Alba. The lack of Silva and the help of Candreva allowed Maggio to get forward at ease and his runs forward also made it difficult for Spain to get any width of the left side as he was able to keep Alba at bay. Over 40% of Italy’s play came down the right side of their attack, primarily through Maggio.

Two of Italy’s best chances in the match came to Maggio, both of the chances being headers. His first attempt came when Daniele De Rossi played a really good ball behind Spain’s high line, with Maggio getting on the goal side of Jordi Alba and heading it into the on-rushing Casillas. His next chance came as a ball was crossed to the back post, with Maggio connecting with a diving header, again right at Casillas, but the intentioned and ability to get behind a rather poor Alba was evident throughout much of the first half.

Second Half, Extra Time Changes

Apparently, after the half time team talk, Del Bosque was seen in the tunnel giving Spain another pep talk just before they went out for the second half and it was certainly something that they needed. During the first half, Spain were sluggish in their movement of the ball. It had to be quicker, they had to look to open up the spaces between Italy’s back three and midfield five with a bit more intent and urgency.

Prandelli made a change at half time, bringing off Barzagli due to injury and shifting De Rossi back to the centre of Italy’s back three. Montolivo came in to the Italian midfield which took away from Italy’s defensive abilities a bit in midfield, which allowed Spain more time on the ball when they brought beyond the halfway line. Del Bosque reacted by trying to free up more space for his creativity midfield duo, Iniesta and Xavi.

Del Bosque’s first change was to take off David Silva and bring on Jesus Navas, a move that would give Spain a good amount fo width on the right side of their attack, something that was lacking as Pedro would drift inside and Arbeloa was very hesitant on getting forward. During is time on the pitch, Navas was fouled 3 times and had 4 successful dribbles, both matched the highest for Spain.

Navas’ introduction also helped a bit on the left side. While Silva was in, he wanted to come inside and it made it harder for Iniesta to operate as they both Silva and Iniesta really wanted to occupy the same space. With Navas on and Pedro on the left, it allowed Iniesta a bit more room to operate and dribble at the Italian defense, and during the second half, he suffered a good amount of fouls in good areas for Spain. It also isolated Torres a little bit, with both Pedro and Navas looking to provide width, something De Bosque addressed by bringing on Mata for Pedro.

Later on, Del Bosque brought on Javi Martinez for Torres. For a while after his introduction, Martinez was playing as Spain’s highest player up the pitch, but should dropped into midfield allowing Iniesta to take up a position on the left side on Spain’s attacking three, with Mata and Navas making up the other two.

With all of Del Bosque’s changes, starting from the first, Spain took control of the game and out shot Italy significant from the second half onward.

Conclusion

The match was decided on penalty kicks, going to the seventh kicker for each side, with Bonucci hitting his shot over the bar and Jesus Navas scoring the winner for Spain.

It was an entertaining match overall for a few reasons. It is always a joy to watch Spain and under Prandelli, Italy have also become a great side to watch as he has brought a much better philosophy to the side than his predecessor, Marcelo Lippi.

After the match, Del Bosque heaped a lot of praise on Italy for taking control of the game in the first, but seemed confident that Spain should have scored once they corrected their errors.

Stray Observations

– I read somewhere that after Spain’s first five penalty takers, it was up to Xavi to decide who took them as Del Bosque only planned for five.