Under the leadership of head coach Mancini, the Blues Italy was not optimistic before the game, relying on excellent overall attack and defense to win the European Cup, which also made fans have higher expectations for Italy's prospects in the World Cup, but in the Qatar World Cup European qualifiers, Italy's performance was not satisfactory, did not directly from the group breakout to lock in the main stage, need to decide their fate through the play-offs, in the semi-finals of Group C in the play-offs, Italy encountered North Macedonia, Although many of the core players of the Blue Army are absent, they still have a clear advantage in overall strength, and sure enough, after the game began, they firmly controlled the trend of the game, and attacked the opponent's goal for a long time, but the forward players repeatedly missed good opportunities, so that Italy could not break the deadlock on the field for a long time, in the last moment of injury time, a whole game in North Macedonia that was passively beaten created a miracle, Trajkovsky shot from a distance outside the big penalty area, and scored into the bottom left corner of the goal. Helping North Macedonia beat Italy 1-0, the Stingo European Championship champions crashed to the ground, and North Macedonia will face Portugal, led by Cristiano Ronaldo, in the play-off final!
North Macedonia, which knows that its strength is far inferior to that of the Blue Army, has put up a deadlocking posture at the beginning of the game, hoping to rely on the numerical advantage of the back line to block Italy's attack, hoping to drag the game into a penalty shootout, and create the hope of winning the next round for itself.
From the course of the game, North Macedonia's strategy has achieved a very obvious effect, in the first half of Italy in the possession rate of 74%, and created 16 shots on goal, did not be able to knock on the opponent's goal, North Macedonia can not concede the ball in the first half, in addition to their own bus to achieve results, there is a very important reason, that is, the Italian offensive players repeatedly missed good opportunities, the 30th minute North Macedonian goalkeeper passed the ball wrong, Berardi in the face of the empty goal of the push weak, Giving the goalkeeper plenty of time to get back into defensive positions and deflect the ball, the Blues also missed a really good chance to score.
After the start of the second half, Italy was still attacking around the opponent's goal, but the forward players did not wear shooting boots in this battle, so that the fans could only watch them waste good opportunities again and again, in the 58th minute it was Berardi again, a shot in the box directly hit the anti-aircraft cannon, the Blues once again rubbed shoulders with the goal, and in the 63rd minute, after receiving a pass from a teammate in the box, a shot was touched by the defender.
In football, the side that wasted the opportunity will be punished, Italy, which wasted the opportunity to score goals again and again in the whole game, was blocked by the opponent in injury time, Trajkovski shot from a distance outside the box without warning, piercing the Italian goal, Mancini was also surprised on the sidelines, but could only watch the team being eliminated.
The result of this game is undoubtedly a huge good news for C Ronaldo, Portugal in another game, 3-1 defeated Turkey, will compete with North Macedonia for a World Cup regular place, due to the obvious strength advantage, Portugal's promotion prospects are also very optimistic, laughing at the gift of C Ronaldo, can lead the team to enter the Qatar World Cup as desired, let's wait and see!