‘Tired and destroyed’ – The night European champions Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup
2 years, 9 months ago

‘Tired and destroyed’ – The night European champions Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup

New York Times  

Not qualifying for the World Cup was unthinkable to Roberto Mancini. Last summer’s unexpected triumph at the pandemic-delayed European Championship had served as redemption for the ignominy of not qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years in 2018. Italy’s players belted out the national anthem and the fans intoned Seven Nation Army, the anthem of their 2006 World Cup win. Italy coach Roberto Mancini watches on as his European champions are defeated to miss out on a second straight World Cup Domenico Berardi should have capitalised on the mistake made by North Macedonia goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski last night in the same way he had to make the most of a one-v-one in Basel where Switzerland keeper Yann Sommer, to his credit, played out of his skin. True, the back four was completely different to the first-choice defence at the Euros and Gianluca Mancini had Alessandro Florenzi to thank for covering up a mistake in the first half, but Italy had enough about them — even if the options on the bench weren’t so plentiful — with the in-form Gianluca Scamacca another unavailable in addition to Nicolo Zaniolo and Andrea Belotti, who were also in the stands rather than in the match-day squad.

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