In the 91st minute of the game, goalkeeper Dimitrevsky kicked off, the North Macedonian players fought for a little in front of the field, Trajkovski took the ball and adjusted slightly, and then shot from a distance, the Italian could only watch North Macedonia kill the game on his doorstep.
In this way, Italy, which won the European Championship in July last year, was actually defeated by North Marchton in the play-offs, completely declaring that it was not eligible for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. It is worth mentioning that Italy has missed the final round for two consecutive years, and the current problems existing in the team can be seen.
But from another point of view, although Italy itself has many problems, but after all, it still has a huge advantage in strength in front of North Macedonia, why did it end up in such a situation?
A game without suspense?
Before the match, the result of the play-offs had been rendered as a "European Championship battle" between Portugal and Italy. Indeed, as Euro 2016 winners and Euro 2020 winners, Portugal and Italy have a huge advantage over Turkey and North Macedonia.
In terms of value, the total value of the Italian team reached 856 million euros, ranking fourth in the world. North Macedonia, on the other hand, is a little "thin" – their total team is worth only 64 million euros, ranking 57th in the world.
Even in terms of actual performance, Italy is undoubtedly far superior to North Macedonia.
Both teams participated in last year's European Championship, Italy won three consecutive victories in the group stage, and defeated austria, Belgium and Spain in the knockout round, and finally defeated England in the final and won the European Cup; on the other hand, North Macedonia, for the first time in history, although they tried their best to qualify for the final of the European Cup, but due to the overall strength gap, they finally lost three battles in the group stage and were eliminated at the bottom.
Worth 13 times as much as their rivals and carrying the aura of a European Cup winner, Italy, despite having performed poorly in previous qualifiers, still did not believe they would fall in front of North Macedonia.
But the world of football is so wonderful that Italy can win the European Championship and lose in such a life-and-death battle.
In a way, Italy's failure was not accidental, and the foreshadowing that had been laid in the group stage gradually broke out, eventually leading to tragedy.
Key players are injured
In the analysis of Italy's squad before the European Championship, the author emphasized the offensive football system created by Mancini. The Italian coach, who did not hesitate to give up his high salary to return to the national team, dared to subvert the tradition and raise the banner of offensive football.
Mancini once said in an interview: "Now our perception has changed, after many years of defensive counterattack-oriented style, people can now see our change." ”
Through the selection of technical players, there are many new blood active in the Italian national team today, their technical style is more flexible, and they have a wealth of offensive options under the premise of attaching importance to defense.
In Mancini's offensive football system, the whole is important, but it is also indispensable to the inspiration of the role players.
In last year's knockout round at the European Championship against Belgium, Italian left-back Spinazzolla suffered a serious injury with a ruptured Achilles tendon and was expected to return in months. However, Spinazzolla's comeback was repeatedly delayed, failing to catch up with Italy's many key matches in the qualifiers.
The leak came amid overnight rains, and Italian winger Chiesa injured an anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the Serie A campaign between Juventus and Roma earlier this year. According to the Milan Sports Newspaper, Chiesa will rest for at least 6 months, coupled with the possibility of ligament injury recurrence, it will take 2 to 3 months to rebuild muscle groups, so a full comeback may be postponed to 9 months later.
In this way, Spinazzolla and Chiesa were absent due to injuries, and the threat of mancini's attacking system on the wing at the European Championship dropped significantly. In this case, the team's final blow must be applied to others, but it is difficult for the latecomers to carry the beam, which has evolved into the current ending.
In spinazzolla, for example, Italy has played 10 matches since his injury, but has won just two in regular time, a 5-0 win over underdog Lithuania and a 2-1 win over Belgium in the Nations League. Even in last year's European Championship elimination of Spain and the final championship battle, Italy's offensive performance has declined compared to before.
Of course, in addition to Spinazzola and Chiesa, the injuries of Bonucci, Di Lorenzo and other European Championship winners have shaken Italy's main squad. The players who followed up had inherent ability, but failed to construct a solid enough offensive and defensive system in a short period of time, resulting in falling behind in many key battles.
The players on the pitch did not perform well
Even with spinazzola and Chiesa, two attacking flashpoints absent, it can't be an excuse for Italy to lose. Facing North Macedonia, which is far weaker than itself, despite the serious wave of injuries, Italy still has many elite players and is fully capable of contributing a goal battle.
The reason why the siege of the whole field is not fruitful, and some players play abnormally also have a lot to do with it.
In this campaign, Italy was in full control of the situation on the field, holding 70% of the ball, completing 32 shots on goal in the whole game, and the number of dangerous attacks reached 103 times, almost 10 times that of the opponent.
However, in the face of such a huge offensive advantage, Italy's ability to grasp the opportunity is unsatisfactory. They had only five shots on target and only 15 percent on target in the game, while North Macedonia, despite being stuck in half-time for most of the time, completed two shots on target and scored one goal, far more efficiently than Italy.
The attack has only blossomed and did not bear fruit, which has a lot to do with the sluggish performance of the Italian forward line.
In this campaign, Mancini sent a forward trident of Berardy + Immobile + Insigne, all of whom have been honed in Serie A for many years, of which Inmobile is arguably the best striker in Serie A in recent years: the star who currently plays for Lazio has averaged 29 goals per season since the 16-17 season, including 41 goals in 17-18 seasons, 39 goals in 19-20 seasons, and 26 goals so far this season.
Although Berardi has no experience in the giants, he has also experienced many years in Sassuolo and has gradually grown into an indispensable key figure in the team's front line. In Sassuolo, whose overall strength is relatively mediocre, Berardi has scored in double figures for four consecutive seasons, and this season has completed 12 goals and 11 assists in 28 games.
Although Insigne is about to leave the top five leagues, he is still a role player on Napoli's attacking line to this day. In addition to this season, Insigne has scored in double figures for six consecutive seasons and has a good performance on the organizational side.
On the whole, perhaps the absence of Chiesa and others has laid an unstable factor for the attack of the Blues, but most fans will certainly not suspect before the game: Berardi, Immobile and Insigne's trident, there should be no problem in taking North Macedonia, right?
However, the tridents, which each had their own bravery in the league, were collectively lost in this crucial battle.
In the trident, the organization-leaning Insigne only completed three shots on goal (1 on target) in the whole game, and the pass success rate was only 77%. With Seven shots from goal but only one hit the frame of the goal, The Lazio striker, who was already incompatible with the Mancini 433 system, was generally confused and could not bring his highlights in the league to the international arena.
Of course, the most questioned by fans is Berardi.
Berardi's experience in the tournament has grown significantly after being tempered by the European Championship, and he should have repaid the manager's trust with goals. Regrettably, although Berardi was active in the front and created many good opportunities to break the goal, he was in poor condition, as many as 8 shots on goal but only 2 shots on target, missed 1 empty goal opportunity, and lost possession 24 times.
In the 30th minute of the match, North Macedonia goalkeeper Mitrevsky passed the ball directly to Berardi in front of goal. However, in the face of most of the empty goal, Berardi's push was slightly weak, and it was directly "passed" back to Mitrevsky.
In the 63rd minute of the match, Verratti dribbled under the midfield multiplayer bag and used a clever pick to find a timely and adducted Berardi. Unfortunately, Berardi's volley after unloading the ball was not angled well and still did not hit the frame of the goal.
Similar to this missed opportunity in this game appeared many times, Berardi, Inmobile, Insigne jointly constructed a forward combination of opportunities to create the ability, but there is no way to have a result in the empty scene, leaving a hidden danger for the final goal.
Of course, let's not forget that the reason why Italy "fell" to participate in the play-offs has a lot to do with Jorginho's previous abnormal play.
On September 6, 2021, in the 5th round of the Group C of the European Regional Group Stage of the World Preliminary Round, Italy challenged Switzerland away, and Jorginho's penalty was saved by Sommer, which directly led to the team scoring only 1 point on the road; two months later, Jorginho conceded a penalty again in the match against Switzerland, which directly led to Italy being forced to be equalized by Switzerland at home, and they were also suppressed by Switzerland in the final standings, and they could only rank second.
As a strong contender for UEFA's best and even last year's Ballon d'Or, Jorginho is a stable "card machine" for the midfield position, both in Chelsea and the Italian national team. Solid scheduling and moderate defensive interception are important reasons why he can stand in the ranks of excellent midfielders, but repeated missed penalties in key battles caused Italy to concede four points, indirectly laying the groundwork for today's play-off exit.
North Macedonia, not to be taken lightly
When North Macedonia reached the final round of the European Championship last year, the domestic media had made an interesting inventory, and the national football team had played with North Macedonia 5 times in history, and was unbeaten with 3 wins and 2 draws.
In the early 10s, North Macedonia's darkest, they fell to 160th place in the world rankings and became a completely fishy team.
However, past downturns are not the same as the present. With Pandev's strong return, complemented by a group of young stars produced after the youth training system shines, North Macedonia's competitiveness has risen rapidly.
In the 18th and 19th seasons, Pendev led the national team to the top of the 4th group of the UEFA Nations League D class with a brilliant record of 5 wins and 1 loss, and qualified for the European Championship qualifiers in the play-offs. Since then, North Macedonia has defeated Kosovo and Georgia, and for the first time in its history, it has qualified for the continental competition.
Despite losing three games in the euro group stage, the fledgling North Macedonia has accumulated valuable experience. Veteran Pendev scored his first goal of the tournament for North Macedonia and made a good start to north Macedonia's further rise. Since then, the veterans represented by Pandev have faded out of the national team, and the young people have taken over the banner and opened a new era belonging to North Macedonia.
In the group stage of the World Cup qualifiers, North Macedonia achieved a brilliant result of 18 points with 5 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses, of which the 2-1 away victory over Germany has become a classic example in the history of the national team. In the end they finished second in the group and qualified for the qualifier play-offs.
Today, although North Macedonia's strength is still not outstanding on the European continent, it is no longer the obscure fish belly of a few years ago, and it has every opportunity to gain a head start against the top teams. From another point of view, Italy may be too contemptuous of North Macedonia to "lose face" in this game that should be without suspense.
The road is bleak, where to go?
Less than a year ago, Italy was still bathed in the glory of winning the European Championship, but today they have fallen in front of the "unknown" North Macedonia. Mancini's tuning of the team is obvious to all, and the European Championship is the best reward for them. However, when key players are absent, when the successor plays mediocre, Rao is the famous coach and has no choice.
After the upset, rumors about Mancini's imminent graduation are very loud, and now there is news that Cannavaro will replace him as the Italian manager.
Regardless of the outcome, the addition of blood from the new generation and the ornamental attacking football are the precious treasures left to Italy by the Mancini era. Although this era ended somewhat early, it at least pointed the way forward for Italy in the future.
As Mancini himself put it, today was the "darkest day" of his life; but for Italy, it was undoubtedly a day of "starting over". Forget the glory of the European Championships, carry the shame of missing the World Cup twice, and start again, maybe we can see them shine again in the near future.