The reigning European championship winners made life difficult for themselves to qualify for a summer in Germany; with a 3-1 loss against England at Wembley hindering their progress late on in the qualification stage, they would get the upper hand in a 5-2 win against North Macedonia and after a nervy ninety minutes against Ukraine would snatch qualification to Euro 2024 with a 0-0 draw, Spalletti has well and truly changed the Azzurri for the better.
Spalletti was in for a challenge when he took over as manager of the Azzurri after his short sabbatical from management, as his first game would be a shameful draw against North Macedonia, a team they have been far too familiar with in recent years; this was Spalletti just dusting off the cobwebs and implementing his style of football as then rack up a 2-1 win against Ukraine and do the double of Malta with a dominant 7-0 win to put them alongside England as front runners to top the group.
However, Italy would be swiftly brought back to earth when they took on England at Wembley. Despite going 1-0 up early through Gianluca Scamacca and looking as if they could get something from the game, they could not capitalize on their lead, ultimately losing the game 3-1.
Italy's fate would first be put into North Macedonia's hands, and they would start on the front foot, ending the first half 3-0 up despite a rocky second half allowing North Macedonia two goals; they would finish the game 5-2 winners, only needing to get a single point against Ukraine to qualify.
The pressure would get to the Italians in their final game as they would have the majority of the possession for most of the match against Ukraine, creating seventeen shots and only having two on target. Additionally, Italy had nine corners and could not capitalise successfully, gifting Ukraine many chances to score, including a late counter-attack in injury time.
This gave the Italians the biggest fright as Cristante would make contact with Mudryk, who would fall to the floor seemingly too dramatically for the referee, who decided not to give a penalty and was not consulted by VAR for what looked to many as a clear shout for a penalty.
Whilst it is not the way that the Azzurri and Spalletti will want to be remembered for qualifying for Euro 2024, they won't be bothered as in his reign so far, he has brought more positivity and a renewed sense of enthusiasm and pride for players that are called up to the national team, including merit-based call-ups and that the players that are called up enjoy playing under him and his style of play creates more positive football being played, their recent qualifiers being a prime example of this given the number of attacking chances that they had created compared to the previous games under Mancini.
Italy will be in pot 4 for the tournament draw, meaning they can still face other strong European teams, including France, Portugal and England. Still, whilst it may have been a daunting prospect under previous management, the new enthusiasm that Spalletti brings to the Azzurri gives them a renewed sense of belief that they will be able to make a challenge to retain their title as European Champions.
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