Italy captain Gianluigi Donnarumma was met with hostile reactions from frustrated fans as he made attempts to placate them following their early exit from Euro 2024.
The Azzurri, the previous tournament champions, were outmatched by Switzerland in the round of 16. Their opponents triumphed with a 2-0 victory in Berlin while the Italians failed to land a single shot, marking the end of their underwhelming stint at the tournament in Germany in embarrassing fashion.
Out of four matches, Italy savored victory only once during a match against Albania. The team's lukewarm performance did not sit well with their fervent travelling fans who rejected Donnarumma's conciliatory gestures at the Olympiastadion as he signaled to take the blame for Italy's unsatisfactory showing.
READ MORE: Kylian Mbappe receives apology from Belgium over deleted video before Euro 2024 clash
READ MORE: Euro 2024 game suspended due to weather as biblical rain and thunderstorm cause safety fears
Despite being one of the standout performers, the PSG goalkeeper faced a cold reception from the Italian crowd when he approached their corner of the stadium. Pictures show him retreating rather awkwardly amidst the high emotional backdrop prevailing in the German capital.
The disheartened goalkeeper confessed to RAI Sport and Sky Sport Italia, "We can only apologise to everyone. It really hurts. We disappointed today and Switzerland deserved to win, so there's nothing else to say.
"We struggled throughout the match, other than at the end where they sat a bit deeper and we were able to take the initiative, but we really should've done it earlier.
"In the first half we lost the ball too easily, we left them too many spaces, we weren't pressing properly. It was tough, it is a very difficult game to swallow, but this is how it went and we have to accept that."
Switzerland scored a goal in each half to dominate their last 16 match against Italy, despite the latter's late surge. Luciano Spalletti's team had previously required a last-minute goal against Croatia earlier in the week to secure their advancement from the group stages.
Italy joined Spain (2016) and Portugal (Euro 2020) as the third consecutive defending European champion to be knocked out in the last 16 stage.
The Italian coach Spalletti admitted: "It's true that the goal at the start of the second half knocked the confidence out of us. Even if we were in their half, we were not incisive," He added, "What made the difference was the tempo, we were too slow compared to them in the first half. Even in terms of individuals, there was a different tempo of the movements and the duels.
"Unfortunately, sharpness and tempo makes the difference. Last time I thought perhaps if I gave them time to recover and change a few players, they'd be sharper. At this moment, for too many reasons, we are unable to do more than this right now."