In a focus battle in the semi-finals of the World Cup European Qualifiers play-off at the end of the early morning of March 25, Beijing time, the European Cup champion Italy men's football team broke out of the big cold, losing 0-1 to North Macedonia, which ranked 67th in the world. The Blues missed the World Cup for two consecutive years, while North Macedonia will compete with Portugal for a ticket to the World Cup final.
After the match, Italy's midfield core Jorginho was emotionally out of control and tearful in an interview, choking up: "It's hard to explain what happened. It's so hurtful. In the last few games we have made some mistakes and can't recover from them. Caused a different result. ”
Speaking about the penalties he had conceded in his two previous games against Switzerland, the 2021 Ballon d'Or winner blamed himself: "Whenever I think about it, I feel sad because I still think about it, and unfortunately I think about it all my life. I took two penalties and I couldn't help the team and my teammates, I couldn't make your country happy, it was something that would keep you carrying, it was very heavy. They said they were going to look up and straighten their chests and move on, but it was really painful. ”
In this World Preliminary Round, Italy has a great advantage. But in the two-legged match against the Swiss men's football team, Jorginho stunned and twice missed penalties, which also led to Italy's two draws with the Swiss team, invisibly losing 4 points, and it was because of these 4 points that the Italian men's football team was squeezed into the second place in the group by Switzerland, went to the play-offs and was eventually eliminated by North Macedonia.
Sadly, the 30-year-old has never played in a World Cup in his career. At the age of 34 years later, whether he will have another chance is a big question.