In another 48 hours, the battle for the 2022 Qatar World Cup European Play-off will begin, and the 12 European teams that have no direct promotion will be divided into 3 groups and compete for the final 3 World Cup tickets.
Of the 12 teams, the most surprising are undoubtedly the last two European Cup winners – Portugal and the Blues Italy. With the strength of the European champions, Italy and Portugal should not have run to the play-offs to join in the fun, and even during the European Cup in full swing, both teams were the best candidates to qualify from their respective groups.
However, in the final round of the group stage, both teams unexpectedly overturned the ship - Portugal was reversed by Serbia in the case of a draw to qualify, and lost the ticket to the World Cup in the last 1 second; Italy was forced to draw with Bulgaria in the goal competition with Switzerland, and lost the group top spot in the last round.
In this way, the two traditional giants of European football did not sit in the special car that went straight to the World Cup, and had to run to the European play-offs at the last minute to squeeze the subway. But UEFA didn't seem to think it was exciting enough, and after the "clever hand", it forced the two European champions into the same promotion zone.
This means that italy and portugal, two old strong teams with widespread fan support around the world, at least one of them will miss the Qatar World Cup. The arrangement of UEFA's play-offs looks like it was intentional - 6 of the 12 teams have seeded teams, and they don't look at the points. And this result makes FIFA even more difficult to say - this play-off is wonderful and exciting, but the World Cup is destined to lack a bright color.
There is a head for wrongs, and there is a master for debts. Behind the failure of the Italian team and the Portuguese team, although the reasons are not the same, they are all man-made disasters.
How did Italy fall into the play-offs? - Made by yourself.
After 54 years of returning to the top of Europe, the Blue Jackets have made the whole Apennines an ocean of joy, so the European championship's qualifier journey has taken the European Championship as an inflection point and has taken a sharp turn. The Italian team has two glorious traditions: one is to fight back in desperate situations, and the other is the championship syndrome.
After winning the European Championship, Italy won 5 games, 1 win and 4 draws, compared with the previous 3 wins of the European Championship. Among them, home and away teams were forced to draw by the Swiss team, which became the fundamental reason why the Italian team ultimately missed the World Cup through train.
In the 2 matches with Switzerland, Italy had 2 chances to directly end the group top spot, but Jorginho lost a penalty at home and away that could seal the victory, but if he hit any one, Italy could directly lock the top spot in the group.
The Italian team died by itself, but the Portuguese team was wrongfully killed.
Although Portugal's last-minute "leveling is ready" mentality put their previous efforts to the ground, the root of all this was the 2-2 match between the two teams in the first leg. Portugal led by two goals before being equalised by Serbia, and Cristiano Ronaldo's goal that crossed the goal line in the final moments was blackmailed by the referee.
Such an important game as the World Cup qualifiers actually does not use goal line technology, there is no goal line referee, and UEFA is enough. If Cristiano Ronaldo's goal had not been hacked, Portugal would have qualified early.
Hey, after a sigh, I can only sigh that the world is uncertain and the ending is unpredictable. Now, Italy and Portugal are in the same zone and are doomed to fail to qualify at the same time. Previously, the media and fans were still looking forward to the final showdown between the two teams, but now it seems that the two teams have problems even meeting in the division division final.
Portugal suffered a defensive crisis, Ruben Diaz could not play due to injury, and Pepe was infected with the new crown and did not qualify for the big list, which made the already top-heavy Portuguese team worse. Against the tough Turkish team, Portugal did not have much advantage, and now can only hope that the front line has played.
And the Italian team, the attacking power is already worrying, the European Cup shine of Chiesa is also injured, and now even the most stable link has sounded the alarm - the main goalkeeper Donnarumma "defected" to Paris, due to the inability to play steadily led to a sharp decline in form, the Champions League after being possessed by Karius after the mentality is about to collapse ...
Hey, the pear and the grape, one is destined to rot in the frame, and if it is not good, it will all rot. What a goddamn football!