In the early hours of this morning, the brutal World Cup qualifiers in the European zone play-offs were in full swing, and in one of the focus battles, Italy was eliminated at home by North Macedonia in stoppage time, and missed the World Cup for two consecutive years.
It is hard to imagine that the Blues, who won the European Championship last summer, fell to the altar in just a few months. Originally falling into the play-offs was enough to disappoint, and drawing into the same group as Portugal had already made people sweat for them, and they did not think that they had not even waited for the opportunity to play portugal, and they were announced in advance.
The opponent who eliminated them is North Macedonia, which only made its international debut last year, ranked 69th in the world, a team that has always been a small role in the European and world map, although they have beaten Germany in the group stage.
There have been many professionals who have analyzed the reasons for Italy's loss in this game, in a nutshell, that is, the ability to grasp opportunities is too poor, and the opponent is indeed overwhelmed on the scene, but the lack of strength is equal to zero.
Italy has no shortage of good strikers, with Mobile and Berardi both topping the List of Top Scorers in Serie A, but when it comes to the national team, their ability to score goals is greatly reduced. At this time, it is difficult not to think of one person, that is, Balotelli, who is currently playing in the Turkish league.
Today's Balotelli is certainly not the talented Ba shen he once was, but he has also contributed 12 goals and 4 assists in the Turkish Super League this season, and he is still in good shape. Two months ago, Mancini had also called him into the team for training, but he was re-excluded from the final list.
There are many problems with Ba Shen's personality, but his ability is actually impeccable, especially his ability to fight hard battles is significantly stronger than the other members of the team, which was confirmed at the 2012 European Championship and the 2014 World Cup. Italy's last World Cup goal so far was also scored by Balotelli.
In addition, because of Bashen's talent and clear brain circuits, he can often contribute some magic strokes to solve the dilemma, which is also because of the ability of relatively traditional strikers such as Mobile and Berardi. If Balotelli came on in the game, even if it is not dare to say that Italy will definitely score goals, at least it can get more ideas for solving problems.
When seeing Italy eliminated, the team with the most mixed feelings may be England. In last summer's European Championship final, England lost to Italy on a penalty at their home field, missing out on the first time in team history to reach the top of Europe.
In fact, in that game, the advantage of the England team is very obvious, but if they attack firmly and boldly, the championship will most likely fall into their pockets. However, coach Southgate's tactical choices, especially the timing of the 3 substitution adjustments, were really powerless to complain, and finally buried a good situation.
Southgate chose to be conservative, on the one hand, probably because of the pressure to win the championship, on the other hand, he was frightened by the good form of Italy's previous games at that time, overestimating the real strength of the Italian team.
I don't know if after watching Italy's performance in the qualifiers and the UEFA Nations League after watching the European Championship, especially after seeing the results of italy's current elimination, England, especially Southgate, is remorseful?