Opinion – Marina Izidro: Italy is not going to the World Cup. And Portugal?

Once spring starts, people are happier in London. It’s sunny, the days are longer – it gets dark here at 4 pm in winter – and the magnolias make the streets colorful and fragrant. As the heat doesn’t last that long, parks and pubs were filled with 17 degrees on Friday (25). Greta doesn’t care. She is English, but considers herself Italian because her parents were born in Italy and she lived there for many years. While cradling a baby in the stroller, the nanny strikes up a conversation with me when she learns I’m writing about football. “I’m devastated,” she tells her.

Italy are out of the World Cup again, an elimination they are still trying to understand. Last Thursday (24), the Azzurri lost the decisive match of the European repechage to North Macedonia, 67th in the FIFA rankings. Finished 32 times, hit the opposing defensive wall and got a goal from Aleksandar Trajkovski in stoppage time.

Greta tells me she called her grandmother in Italy after the game. “She is 90 years old, grew up watching football with her seven brothers. She told me that, at this point in her life, having to see Italy not go to the World Cup twice in a row is a shame.”

For Italians, who are passionate about the sport, it is disappointing and difficult to digest. The selection was European champions last year with an exciting team. Okay, the recent record in World Cups is not the best – they were eliminated in the group stage in 2010 and in 2014, did not qualify for the tournament in 2018. But Italy went from heaven to hell in just eight months. “Another disaster,” wrote the newspaper Corriere Dello Sport.

North Macedonia will face Portugal on Tuesday (29) for a place in the World Cup. It is worth remembering that he beat Germany in the group stage of the qualifiers and now took out the four-time world champions. The Portuguese take care. Can you imagine Cristiano Ronaldo out of what could be the last World Cup for the greatest national team scorer of all time?

If that happens, the Portuguese who has been elected the best in the world five times will not be the only star watching the World Cup on television. In the European repechage, Sweden and Poland compete for the same spot, that is, the competition will have either Robert Lewandowski or Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

It won’t be the time to see Erling Haaland at a Worlds yet, as Norway did not qualify. If we look at the African qualifiers, Egypt and Senegal face each other, and only one of Liverpool’s stars and friends, Mohamed Salah or Sadio Mané, will go to Qatar in November.

But the Cup sticker album will remain brilliant. Among the European teams, we will have Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema in the current champions France, Kevin De Bruyne in Belgium, Germany, Spain, England, the return of Holland, and other title candidates around the world, such as Brazil.

Here, the Brits are excited that Gareth Bale’s Wales, one victory away from qualifying, will return to the Cup. It’s not for less. The only time the Welsh competed in the tournament was in 1958, when they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Brazil, with a goal from Pelé.

Greta doesn’t want England to go far in the World Cup. She thinks the English get arrogant when they win. Since Italy will not be in the Cup, he prefers Portugal because he has Portuguese friends and family. “Or maybe now I can cheer for Brazil!”