Italy North Macedonia

2022 - 3 - 25

italy vs north macedonia

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Week UK"

North Macedonia shock Italy: one of football's biggest ever upsets? (The Week UK)

Italy's shock 1-0 defeat at home to North Macedonia means the European champions will not appear at this year's Fifa World Cup. A dramatic finale in the ...

“The Italians’ absence from Qatar this winter will go down as one of the biggest surprises in international football history.” A team that goes to Italy and beats the European champions doesn’t need introductions.” Portugal will now “need to show the same respect to North Macedonia that we would to Italy”, Santos told a news conference. Italian newspapers were “left in dismay” following the defeat, the Daily Mail reported. Head coach Roberto Mancini has been left “devastated” and is considering his future. From September to today we have made mistakes and we have paid for them.”

Italy players are 'destroyed and crushed' after failing to qualify for ... (CNN)

Italy players are "destroyed and crushed" after failing to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar following a last-gasp defeat to North Macedonia, ...

"We have always created and dominated matches, but we have not been able to finish teams off. It is clear that we are destroyed and crushed. From September to today, we have made mistakes and we have paid for them. We created plenty of chances, but unfortunately, we didn't manage to score. "I am proud of a team that has given everything. "We didn't concede anything tonight apart from the goal.

Italy dumped out of Qatar 2022 reckoning by late North Macedonia ... (Inside World Football)

By Andrew Warshaw. March 25 – From European champions to World Cup elimination in just nine months. Italian legend Giorgio Chiellini summed up the mood ...

Before the game I told the guys to have fun and they did just that.” When you lose, you have to suffer and remain silent, there is nothing to do.” “This summer I had my greatest joy and today is the biggest disappointment,” said Mancini. “It’s hard to speak. Italy also failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia after losing to Sweden in a two-legged playoff. I don’t know why we haven’t been able to do this, I am also involved in this, and it hurts me to think about it.” “At the moment it’s difficult to talk about it, it will remain a great hole.”

Defeat to North Macedonia leaves 4-time winners Italy out of World ... (The Tribune)

European football champions Italy will miss the World Cup. Again. The unthinkable happened in Palermo yesterday as the Azzurri were beaten 1-0 by North ...

I hope that the coach will stay because he is essential for this team.” — AP/ Missing two straight World Cups is an unprecedented low point for the four-time champions, especially just months after winning Euro 2020. Italy had 32 shots on goal, compared to just four for their opponents. “I’m proud of my teammates, we are all destroyed and broken but we have to start again,” Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini said. But it was Trajkovski’s effort from outside the area as defenders closed in around him that made the difference. Italy had 32 shots on goal, compared to just four for their opponents

Oops, Italy Did It Again! (Defector)

Stefan Spirovski of North Macedonia celebrates their side's victory as Joao Pedro Galvao of Italy looks. Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images. Italy will ...

If you had offered Italians the chance to guarantee the national team a title at the Euros in exchange for missing the sandwiching World Cups, I bet a lot of them would’ve taken the deal. It worked last summer, and in every phase of the match except where it matters most, it worked again on Thursday. They didn’t, and more than anything, even more than Donnarumma’s shaky positioning on the Macedonian goal, that scoring impotence is why Italy is missing out on World Cup soccer once again. It got the former in the most dramatic fashion. Those teams then play a one-match semifinal and a one-match final for the last three qualifying spots. Thanks to Italy’s initially dominant and eventually nail-biting title-winning run at the 2021 Euros last summer, Thursday’s qualifying collapse is on another level of unbelievable.

Italy's World Cup qualifying shock is why we love this sport (unknown)

Italy are trending up under Mancini, but Thursday's high drama means they'll will miss a second straight World Cup. These moments are why we watch.

Italy weren't the best team in Europe when they won Euro 2020, but they still deserved to win it because, for a month, they played some of the best football without having some of the best players. Very few successful teams play that way (at club or international level) and not only has Mancini changed that mentality, but it's percolated down to the younger coaches in Serie A and Serie B. They try to emulate Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, not the mega-catenaccio crew of yesteryear. And they're not a worse team than Switzerland (who are going to the World Cup) and North Macedonia (who, Cristiano Ronaldo permitting, might join them in Qatar), but because individual players made critical mistakes in key moments they still deserve to go out. Nor should it mean that, all of a sudden, because of this result, Italy is heading in the wrong direction. It means that North Macedonia can travel away to the European champions -- who have never, in their history, lost a World Cup qualifier at home -- without arguably their best player (the suspended Elif Elmas) and win with a game plan consisting of staunch defending and an improbable wonder strike in injury time. Some are starting to bear fruit in the form of promising youngsters, some may do so down the line, some may never work out. Either way, Mancini's direction of travel is the correct one. Sometimes you have to accept the fact that generational talents -- as the name implies -- are born, not made. (At least that's the case in Europe, where a whopping 13 countries get to qualify.) Italy went 60 years without missing a World Cup and now, after Thursday's 1-0 playoff defeat to North Macedonia, they've missed the last two buses to the biggest show on Earth. It means another round of heartache after the 2018 World Cup qualifying debacle against Sweden. It means embarrassment and pain that Euro 2020 will only partly mitigate. It's like the old joke about buses: you wait hours for one, and then two come along at once.