Italy’s opening Group B encounter saw them face Albania at Westfalenstadion in Dortmund. Of the four Juventus players chosen for Luciano Spalletti’s tournament squad, only Federico Chiesa would start this game.
Italy’s campaign would begin in disastrous fashion as Nedim Bajrami took advantage of a dreadful Federico Dimarco throw-in. Bajrami fired Albania into a 1-0 lead after 23 seconds, the quickest goal in Euros history.
Juve at the Euros: Chiesa, Cambiaso, Fagioli and Gatti
Italy dusted themselves down and fought back to a 2-1 victory, thanks to goals from Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella in the first sixteen minutes of the game. Chiesa in particular shone throughout the game, running rings round Albania’s stretched defence. Along with Jorginho, Chiesa pulled the strings for the Azzurri, tearing the underdogs’ beleaguered backline apart.
Football Italia were critical of Chiesa. They rated him 6 out of 10, stating “Played very wide, mostly on the right. He didn’t make it easy for Mitaj in the early stages and beat the direct opponents a few times with spectacular moves but in the end, he didn’t contribute with goals or assists. There’s room for improvement.”
Chiesa was replaced on 77 minutes by fellow Juve player Andrea Cambiaso, who did not have time to make much of an impact, as the game petered out. Squad members Nicolo Fagioli and Federico Gatti warmed the bench, and continued to do so in Italy’s next Group B match against Spain in Gelsenkirchen.
Chiesa continued to look a shadow of the player who shone at Euro 2020/1, struggling to get to grips with Cucurella at all in the first half. He did however provide Italy with their only shot of the half, slicing a chance over the bar in injury time. Spain were wasteful in front of goal, missing multiple sitters and should have been two or three by the interval. There were big changes at half time as Chiesa switched to the left wing and Davide Frattesi and Jorginho were replaced by Bryan Cristante and Juve’s Andrea Cambiaso.
The changes didn’t work as Spain continued to pound away at Italy relentlessly, trying to make a breakthrough . Ten minutes into the second half, Williams burst down the left wing, leaving Di Lorenzo for dead. A low cross sees Morata drop down to flick a header on. Donnarumma manages to get his fingertips to the ball, but it deflects off onto Calafiori’s knee, as the ball bundled in for a farcical own goal to make it 1-0 Spain.
Chiesa would be hooked after a poor display on 64 minutes, with himself and Gianluca Scamacca being replaced by Mateo Retegui and Mattia Zaccagni. Despite starting shakily, Cambiaso did manage to keep the scoreline down, hacking a header off the line which had left keeper Donnarumma scrambling. Apart from that, it was poor all round for the Azzurri, who were lucky to only lose 1-0 to the team that would eventually take their crown a few weeks later, with Spain dominant throughout.
This left Italy in a precarious position heading into their final group game against Croatia in Leipzig, but only needing a point to advance. There was no Juve players in the starting 11, with Chiesa dropped in favour of Mateo Retegui. It looked disastrous for Italy when on 52 minutes, Kramarić fired a cross in from the left which flicked off Frattesi’s hand, resulting in a penalty. Donnarumma would save Modric’s effort, but Croatia would catch Italy napping, getting to the rebound. A cross in from the right saw Budimir’s close range effort saved brilliantly by Donnarumma, only to break to Modrić who blasted into the roof of the net from yards out to make it 1-0 Croatia.
With Italy stuck in third-placed limbo and at the mercy of other results, it was clear changes needed to be made, with Chiesa coming on to replace Federico Dimarco. Chiesa was a live wire when he came on, terrorising the Croatian defence with quick passing and even quicker runs. As Italy poured forward in search of an equaliser, Chiesa was at the heart of everything good Italy did, visibly annoyed by the lack of quality from his teammates.
Nicolò Fagioli would make an appearance on 82 minutes, along with Mattia Zaccagni, replacing Matteo Darmian and Jorginho. While not producing anything wondrous, he did take a booking, cynically tugging Gvardiol to kill a Croatian attack as time ticked by. Then, when all hope looked lost, Calafiori zipped down the middle, dispatching a pass wide left for Zaccagni in a ton of space. He cuts into the box, fires a beautiful curling shot into the top right, to make it 1-1 at the death. The equaliser spelt disaster for Croatia, now eliminated, with Italy qualifying from the group in second place.
That point would see Italy advance to the last 16, where they faced Switzerland in Berlin. Fagioli was handed his first start of the tournament, with Chiesa also returning to the starting XI too. Fagioli’s inclusion in the Euros squad was a surprise, especially considering his seven-month ban for placing bets on football games saw him miss most of the previous season. His rustiness was evident, with several errors. Despite having a 90% passing accuracy through the game, none of them were key passes and they felt poorly thought out.
Italy went into the break 1-0 down, after Remo Freuler’s low shot got the better of Donnarumma on 37 minutes. Any hope of a comeback was extinguished immediately from the restart. Italy kicked off, with the ball rolled to Fagioli. Fagioli miskicked his pass straight to a Swiss player. Switzerland descended like a swarm of locusts as the ball made its way to Ruben Vargas, who curled a beauty of a shot into the top corner to make it 2-0 27 seconds into the second half.
It was the first time Italy had conceded more than once in a major tournament game since they lost 4-0 to Spain in the final of EURO 2012, but you couldn’t tell, offering little in attack and showing zero urgency. The only exception to this was Chiesa, who once again played at twice the tempo of his compatriots. Again, Chiesa’s frustration was evident. Playing both on the left and on the right throughout the game, Chiesa summed the mood up perfectly minutes before full time when he ran into the Swiss half, looked up, and threw up his hands in exasperation after realising he has no support whatsoever. Even an appearance from Cambiasso near the end did little to change things as Italy missed out on the Euro quarter-finals for the first time since 2004 while Switzerland reached the quarter-finals for a second successive Euros.
It was a fitting end to Italy’s Euros campaign, a disappointing attempt to retain their crown that never got going. No doubt, Juventus and their players will figure in the postmortem as the home of Calcio tries to figure out exactly where it all went wrong. Of the Bianconeri presence, Chiesa was by far the most effective. After a ropey first two games, being benched for the Croatia game provoked the desired reaction, with Chiesa one of the few shining points from Italy’s final two games.
Chiesa’s future post-Euros is uncertain. The winger has just 12 months left on his contract, with negotiations on a contract extension at an impasse. TEAMtalk reported last week that Chiesa is angling for €8m (£6.8m) a year, roughly £130,000 a week.
With Juve only willing to pay him €6m a year, the winger’s agent Fali Ramadani has began the hunt to find a club willing to pay his salary demands, with Tottenham Hotspur currently leading the race for his signature amidst interest from the likes of Man United and Liverpool.
Fagioli’s surprise inclusion in the Euro 2024 squad saw his first proper involvement since his seven month ban. Despite training with the team throughout his suspension, Fagioli saw limited playing time, making two appearances at the end of the Serie A season. Upon his return, former Juventus youth team manager Francesco Baldini commented on Fagioli’s return, believing he will be akin to a new signing for Juventus in the 24/25 season.
Speaking to TuttoJuve, Baldini stated “due to the direction that Juve is taking at the moment. I don’t think we can ignore, at this moment, the youngsters who have come out of the youth sector such as Nicolussi Caviglia and Fagioli. I have always supported the importance of the second team and it makes me nice to see her still there in the running for the play-offs. Next Gen is a fundamental player for the first team.”
While making fleeting appearances at the tournament, Andrea Cambiaso comes off back of a superb 2023-24 season for Juventus, having contributed 3 goals and 5 assists in 31 appearances. Despite attracting attention from the likes of Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, no transfer rumours have surfaced yet for the right back, who will be hoping to kick on and solidify himself as a permanent fixture of the Juventus starting XI.
The other Juventus player involved, Federico Gatti, did not see any game time at the Euros, but looks to have bigger opportunities on the horizon. Despite having four years left on his contract, the 26 year old has attracted interest from Premier League clubs such as West Ham, Everton and Newcastle. Eddie Howe’s Magpies look set to swoop for the defender, as they look to upgrade on Fabian Schar, who looks likely to not be first choice at St. James Park once Sven Botman returns from his injury next season.
Quite how many of the four Italy Euro 2024 players currently on the books will actually line up for Juventus this season is unknown, but one hopes those that do make a better shake of it than they did in Germany this summer.