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Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo
Maybe that's part of it I suppose.
I thought Marchisio + DeRossi didn't track back enough and pick up the deep-runs from the Spanish MCs...I thought defensively some of the marking by Barzagli and Bonucci was suspect. Silva's first goal for instance...no way Spain should have got that cross off, and even if they did, (I think it was Barzagli if I remember clearly)'s marking was for shit.There wasn't enough ball-pressure in the final third of the field by the Italians defensively IMO. Different than the group-stage game.
And frankly I think they played better during the points in the game where they pressured Spain further up the field and caused turnovers, and were then able to build some possession.
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Spain, when they are on, can make anyone look foolish. Also remember that Italy is a different squad from the first match as well. They've gotten this far on the basis of an attacking mentality. That's how they dispatched England (well, that and penalty kicks, but they were definitely the better side that day) and Germany. So they went with what worked rather than go back to a defensive first mindset.
I do think that if Italy hadn't gone down to 10, the final score would have been 2-1 (though no worse than 2-0).