Italians took to the country’s streets in July last year to celebrate what should have been the redemption of national football. The selection had won the Eurocup in style. Defeated the English at Wembley in the final.
After the pain of not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, it was proof that the four-time world champion team was back.
Was not. Nine months later, players, coaches and fans are trying to understand what happened. With a goal from Aleksandar Trajkovski in stoppage time, on Thursday (24), North Macedonia eliminated Italy in Palermo in the play-off for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“I’m proud of my teammates. We’re all broken and broken, but we have to start over. It’s hard to talk about it. We’re going to stay in a big hole,” said defender Giorgio Chiellini, 37, a symbol of last year’s European conquest. .
One of the most important names in Italian football in the last two decades, the defender may not be in the preparation cycle for the tournament to be shared by the United States, Mexico and Canada in 2026. He has not yet announced his retirement from the national team, unlike the that happened five years ago.
In November 2017, after drawing 0-0 with Sweden in Milan, the country did not qualify for the following year’s World Cup. After the fall, Chiellini announced that he would no longer play with the Azzurri shirt.
It was the match that had the symptomatic image of local football since winning the 2006 World Cup. With the team desperately in need of a saving goal against the Swedes, midfielder Danielle De Rossi was revolted to hear the request of coach Giampiero Ventura to warm up before entering.
He pointed nervously to attacking midfielder Lorenzo Insigne, questioning why a more offensive name had not been chosen.
Ventura was executed. He was eventually fired and has since passed through Chievo and Salernitana, two teams of little importance. The elimination in the repechage to Qatar took place under the direction of Roberto Mancini, the same coach who led Italy to the European title in 2021.
“I hope he continues because it’s essential. We have to win again, go back to the European Championship and four years from now return to this blessed World Cup”, concluded Chiellini.
The European competition can be seen as a consolation, but also as a trophy that has deceived the Italians as to its real strength. The last time the team played a knockout match at the World Cup was in the 2006 final, when they beat France on penalties.
Since then, it has fallen into the group stage in 2010 and 2014. If at the World Cup in Brazil it was in the group considered the strongest (with England, Uruguay and Costa Rica), in South Africa it faced New Zealand, Paraguay and Slovakia. Even so, it was not among the two best.
At Eurocup, he was a finalist in 2012, reached the quarterfinals of 2016 and lifted the cup in 2021.
There is a movement of athletes for Mancini to continue in charge, but, according to the country’s press, he is considering the possibility of resigning.
Even in club football, the Italian power is not the same on the continent. The last Champions League title was for Internazionale, in 2010. Since then, only Juventus has reached two decisions (2015 and 2017). Lost both. There is no national team qualified for the quarter-finals of the competition this season.
But that’s no reason to explain 12 years of absence (at least) from the World Cup. Teams with less tradition and with weaker national leagues than Serie A go to Qatar.
Switzerland took first and secured a spot in the group with Italy, which could have taken the lead if they had beaten Northern Ireland away from home. It tied for 0 to 0. Before that, the midfielder Jorginho, born in Brazil, had at his feet what would be the classification ball, in a penalty kick against the Swiss. wasted.
“The title in July [da Eurocopa] it was my greatest joy. Now it’s the biggest disappointment of my career”, summed up Mancini.
He was part of the squad that Argentina lost on penalties at home in the 1990 World Cup semi-final. But at the time, the temperamental forward did not get along with coach Azeglio Vicini and was little used.
“It’s hard to accept what happened. Now it’s time to ask us some questions”, tried to explain midfielder Marco Verratti, who will hear most of his Paris Saint-Germain teammates discuss their expectations for the World Cup, but will not be there. .
After the final whistle in Palermo, the Italian press began to look for explanations and culprits. It is a fact that Italy no longer has a goalkeeper of the level of Gianluigi Buffon. He has a talented but fickle attacking midfielder (Insigne), and he doesn’t find a top striker in European football.
But, if Ciro Immobile is not Paolo Rossi, he was the golden boot of European football (35 goals) in 2020. Against North Macedonia, little appeared, showing once again that he cannot, for the national team, display the same football presented. in Lazio.
It’s hard to find culprits, not least because the style used by Mancini, of giving players freedom on the field and being more offensive than usual, was working. So much so that the country is the European champion.
Problems could even prevent the selection from being world champion. But not qualify for the Cup? Again?
“It hurts when I think about the penalty I missed against Switzerland. It could have changed everything. I’ll think about it for the rest of my life”, confessed Jorginho.
The irony is that Trajkovski, the Italian executioner, played for four seasons at Palermo and has a son born in the city that has witnessed the greatest glory in North Macedonia’s sporting history.
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