The World Preliminary Round European Zone play-offs broke out of the big cold, European Cup champions Italy was out at home, and lost 0-1 to North Macedonia in stoppage time, missing the World Cup for two consecutive times.
Several other matches, Portugal 3-1 Rick Turkey, will be battling North Macedonia for a World Cup ticket. Sweden eliminated the Czech Republic 1-0 in the final against Poland. Wales eliminated Austria 2-1 and the final opponent was the winner between Ukraine and Scotland.
A very important reason why Italy fell into the play-offs was that in the group stage, Jorginho lost two key penalties in the two games against Switzerland, resulting in the team drawing two with Switzerland, which was equivalent to losing 4 points, being squeezed into the second place in the group, and had no chance to qualify directly. In the play-offs, Italy was full of wounded soldiers.
In this starting lineup, the Blue Jackets lacked The main players of the European Championship champions such as Bonucci, Chiellini, Chiesa Junior, spinazzola, etc., and their strength was greatly reduced. Manager Mancini also struggled for the starters.
In the 29th minute, North Macedonian goalkeeper Dimitrevsky passed the ball directly to Berardi's feet, but unfortunately the Italian striker was soft in the face of the empty goal and was confiscated by Dimitrevsky.
The Serie A Golden Boot fired high over the crossbar from a tight angle as Mobile fired wide
Berardi received a pass from Verratti and shot from close range, slightly high.
Limited by the lack of tacit understanding in the midfield, Italy's opportunities and opportunities were not ideal, and most of the shots on goal were scratched by the same boots and failed to form a real threat.
Seeing that the two teams were about to enter extra time, in the 2nd minute of stoppage time, North Macedonian striker Trajkovski fired a low shot from outside the penalty area, Donnarumma was caught off guard and the ball rolled into a dead corner. With this goal, North Macedonia beat Italy 1-0!
As a result, Italy completely missed the Qatar World Cup, and for the first time in history, it missed two consecutive World Cup matches. Mancini repeats the mistakes of his predecessor Ventura, losing the World Cup knockout at home for the first time in Italian history.
According to the technical statistics of the whole game, Italy bombarded and completed 32 shots on goal, but only 5 shots were on target, North Macedonia shot 4 shots were 2 shots on target, and italy led 66%-34% of the possession, but in the face of the 0-1 score, everything looked pale.
For Italy, it's been less than a year, from winning the European Championship to not even reaching the final of the World Preliminary Play-offs, which is a huge and devastating failure.
Manager Mancini said after the game: "Today was my most disappointing experience. But what can I say, football is like this, we shouldn't have been in the play-offs, we did our best and even talking about this defeat made me feel very difficult. It's a team with great players and I feel sorry for them. ”
Jorginho, who conceded two penalties in the group stage, said: "Those two penalties will haunt me for the rest of my life. ”
Italian Sky Sports journalist Nosotti said Mancini was seriously considering resigning as Italian manager, and former Guangzhou coach Cannavaro could take over the coaching whip.
Portugal, the 2016 Champions of Euro 2016, in the same group as Italy in the play-offs, will have a thrilling victory over Turkey at home and will compete with North Macedonia for a World Cup final.
It was Otavio, Jota and Nunes who scored for Portugal and Irmaz pulled a goal back for Turkey. Italy's unexpected exit seems to be good news for Portugal, but it should not be careless, what if North Macedonia has two consecutive upsets?
Portugal captain C Ronaldo, 37, did not score a goal but made his 185th international A-class appearance, continuing to set a new European player appearance record.
Euro 2020 champions Italy have fallen, can Euro 2016 champions Portugal hold firm? Whether CR7's 5th World Cup tour can be started depends on the showdown between Portugal and North Macedonia in the early morning of the 30th.