'Everything was missing' - Gianluigi Donnarumma almost in tears as he slams Italy's lack of 'courage and quality' in defeat to Switzerland that sees reigning champions crash out of Euro 2024

Goals from Remo Freuler and Ruben Vargas saw the Swiss earn a deserved victory over the Italians who were second-best throughout the contest. Italy had looked poor in the group stages and failed to improve their performance levels to match Switzerland. The reigning champions could not look further from the side three years ago and Donnarumma could not hide his hurt.

Speaking after the game, Donnarumma said: "It hurts, very badly. We apologise to all Italians. Today we [are] disappointed and they deserved it. There's nothing else to say. We struggled throughout the match except at the end when they dropped a little but we lost too many balls, left too many spaces, we didn't press well. It was a very tough match and it won't be easy to digest. That's how it happened, you just have to accept it. Everything was missing. The courage, the qualities. In the first half, they always had the ball in the game and they hurt us, while in the second they scored on us straight away and it was even tougher."

Italy had stumbled through the group stage with a narrow win over Albania and a last-minute draw with Croatia. The Azzurri were completely outplayed by Spain in their second game and looked bereft of ideas against a well-drilled side. The case was the same against Switzerland whose experience told and progressed to the quarter-final.

The Italians will be disappointed with their feeble defence of the European Championships and will now turn their attention to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. The side will have to make a marked improvement if they are to be crowned world champions again.