Italy coach Luciano Spalletti takes responsibility after the knockout in the round of 16, but defends himself against some of the criticism. A question from a Swiss journalist sends him into a rage.
Italy's national coach Luciano Spalletti reacted irritably to a journalist's question following the team's elimination from the European Championship round of 16 against Switzerland. "You have to accept everything, even insinuations of bad taste like yours," said the 65-year-old in response to a question from a Swiss reporter. The reporter had asked Spalletti whether defending champions Italy had been a Fiat Panda and Switzerland a Ferrari during the 2-0 defeat in Berlin on Saturday. "It's clear that you are a person of great irony," replied Spalletti.
The coach and his press spokesman then explicitly asked the journalist several times for his name and employer. "You were better than us and deserved to win," added Spalletti. "We will try to do better next time."
The coach also reacted irritably to questions from Italian journalists and rejected criticism. "It's not such a scandalous result," he said. "Today and against Spain we played a below-average game, but against Croatia it wasn't a scandal." The defending champions were completely without a chance in the round of 16 after a weak performance over 90 minutes and failed to reach the European Championship quarter-finals for the first time since 2004.
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