Italy announced their strong start with a victory in the opening game of Group B of the Europa League, where they were firmly in control of the game, with four players even passing the ball more than a hundred times, making them the second in the history of the Europa League. Nevertheless, leader Spalletti criticized the team's performance, expecting his players to be more proactive.
Italy suffered a setback early in the match, conceding a goal in 23 seconds, but then turned the game around to win in 16 minutes. Throughout the second half, the team completely dominated the field. Spaletti, aware that his team was slightly dull in the second half, kept asking his players to increase the number of passes in the midfield until the crowd erupted in applause. In the end, four players made more than 100 passes, with Zorzino making 120, Di Lorenzo 114, while Bastoni and Nicolò Ballena made 110 and 105 respectively. This achievement makes Italy the second team in the history of European countries to have four players with more than 100 passes in a single game.
However, after the game, Spalletti expressed his dissatisfaction with his team's performance in the extra time, he thought that although there were a lot of passes, the efficiency needs to be improved: we had good passes, but the passes should be more effective, otherwise such a passing system is meaningless. In the second half, facing Albania, we should have had more space to attack, but the players were too conservative in their attacking attitude.
