Italian football has reached a new low with the 4-1 defeat against Germany on Tuesday. This was the first time in almost 21 years that Germany manages to beat Italy.
Germany, who was beaten by England in their last match, wanted to reassure their fans as well as themselves by producing an exceptional performance. Unfortunately, it was the Italians that were on the receiving end of a well-deserved victory from the World Champions.
The Italian side will have to conduct a thorough analysis of their performance in order to improve themselves. If they have any ambition to win the Euro 2016, they should not be playing the way they did against Germany. In fairness, this has been coming for quite some time now. This can be evidenced by the decline of Italian football in the European club competition with only Juventus managing to perform in the Champions League.
Toni Kroos opened the scoring in the 24th minute with a shot just from outside the box which gave no chance to Italian keeper, Gianluigi Buffon. Germany doubled the lead just before the stroke of half-time thanks to a Mario Gotze header. The opportunity came thanks to a cross from Thomas Muller.
After the break, Italy managed to improve their game and had some opportunities to reduce the deficit. However due to poor decision making, they could not have a clear chance on goal. To the contrary, it is Germany who extended the lead with a goal from Jonas Hector. Julian Draxler raided the Italian defence and passed the ball to Hector, who could not miss from inside the box.
The last goal for Germany was scored on a penalty by Mesut Ozil. Gianluigi Buffon was judged to have tripped Rudy inside the box and the referee awarded a penalty.
Italy will have to improve their gameplay if they do not want a repeat of such a scoreline in the Euros finals.