Milan - The crutches used by Fabio Cannavaro to reach the Azzurri's bench turned out to be the worst of omens for Italy. A 3-0 drubbing suffered in Bern against a sparkling Dutch side made Italy feel how hard it will be to add the continental title to the World Cup won in 2006.
There was no pulling of punches on Tuesday's front pages, with La Gazzetta dello Sport titling "Ouch, what a blow," La Stampa talking of "a rout" and la Repubblica noting that "it will take a miracle" to advance in the tournament.
It was Italy's biggest defeat in Euro history and the biggest at major events since losing the 1970 World Cup final 4-1 to Brazil.
Gianluigi Buffon, who took the captain armband from the injured Cannavaro, was widely quoted as he sought no excuses for the debacle.
"We apologize to all of Italy's sportspeople," Buffon said. "We played the worst game since I'm with the national team, that is 12 years."
The star goalkeeper gave a ruthless analysis of the game saying that "when you risk to take six goals, it can't be only a defence problem. There are many problems."
As usual, the coach paid dearly for the poor showing. "Donadoni: the flop of the 'Normal One'," was among the sharpest headlines against Roberto Donadoni, whom La Stampa ironically compared to the Special One status of new Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho.
The Turin daily, among many others, would have liked the in-form forwards Alessandro Del Piero and Antonio Cassano to come on much earlier in the game than the last 25 and 15 minutes and didn't understand why midfielder Daniele De Rossi remained on the bench.
But the greatest worries regarded a dithering defence who conceded two goals in the first half hour, as many as those taken at the entire World Cup two years ago.
The absence of Cannavaro, who hurt his ankle while training a few days before the debut, was badly felt in the back line, but the whole team displayed a general lack of stamina that many fear will be hard to overcome.
"It was just a bad night," Donadoni said. "We have the evidence of past games that went well with this same scheme."
The point that the coach seemed to be missing is that team schemes are fine as long as they are flexible and can quickly be adapted to the opponents' characteristics.
Looking at past Italy's selectors, La Stampa wrote that Donadoni is more similar to the cautious Giovanni Trapattoni than to the impulsive and successful Marcello Lippi.
"Now I hope for a prompt reaction and a proper thrust from our pride," Buffon said.
With next opponents Romania and France on one point after a dull scoreless draw, the world champions are not yet out of the competition, but they badly need to bring back the spirit of the World Cup.
