The European World Preliminary Tournament play-off broke out super cold, and the Italian men's football team, which won the European Championship last summer, was out of the game with a 0-1 upset, and for the first time in the history of the team, it missed the World Cup for two consecutive times. The national team that sent the Italian men's football team out is the inconspicuous North Macedonian men's football team in world football, ranking only 166th in the world in 2017, and now it has changed from a fish belly to a strong team.
In recent years, the strength of the North Macedonia team has improved rapidly, participating in the final round of the European Championship for the first time and reaching the European zone play-off stage for the first time, and the world ranking has soared 99 places.
North Macedonia is the lowest in the world among the 12 teams in the European play-offs, only ranked 67th, only 8 places higher than the Chinese men's football team, so it is not optimistic about promotion.
As a result, this team created a miracle, facing Italy in a passive position, with only 34% of the possession, shooting 4-32 on goal and shooting 2-5, corner kicks 0-16, and finally becoming the winning side.
The only goal of the game occurred in the 92nd minute of the second half, When Trajkovski carried the ball to the front of the penalty area, facing the pocket defense of several Players of the Italian team, Trajkovski shot directly into the goal, and the whole North Macedonian team celebrated wildly, as if winning the championship.
In the end, North Macedonia overthrew Italy with a score of 1-0 and advanced to the final of the play-offs, one step away from the World Cup.
After the game, the whole country of North Macedonia, with a population of only 2.09 million, fell into a carnival, and people flocked to the streets to celebrate and wave the national flag. This is not the first time that North Macedonia has overturned the world's strongest team, last year's World Preliminary Round group stage, North Macedonia had a 2-1 upset victory over Germany, less than half a year to overturn the two major European Championship champions, football charm is vividly reflected.
Next, North Macedonia has a chance to make history again, and will play away to Portugal led by Ronaldo at 2:45 a.m. Beijing time on March 30, and the two teams will compete for a World Cup place. Whether the North Macedonia team will play magic again, send Portugal and C Ronaldo out, this game is highly anticipated.