A few days ago, in the World Preliminary Round European Zone play-off, the European Championship champion Italy was eliminated by North Macedonia and missed the World Cup finals for two consecutive times. However, this is probably not the darkest moment of Italian football.
With the final whistle sounding, the World Preliminary Round European Zone play-off, Italy lost 0-1 to North Macedonia, which lacked the number one star. After the game, the North Macedonian players celebrated wildly, in stark contrast to the lonely looks of the Italian players. The play-off against North Macedonia was originally seen as a "small test", after all, it was widely believed that Italy's final "showdown" would be a bloody fight with Portugal. But unexpectedly, the expected opponent arrived as promised, and Italy fell ahead of time.
In fact, in the match against North Macedonia, Italy lost somewhat breathlessly, because the two teams' full-court shooting ratio was a huge disparity of 32-4. Looking back at the previous world cups, penalty expert Jorginho did not score the penalty twice, resulting in the team not being able to qualify for the first place in the group, and it is no wonder that Italian coach Mancini hung up the word "luck" after the game.
However, missing the World Cup finals twice in a row is obviously not something that can be explained by the simple word "luck", even if they win the European Championship. And it's this title that makes Italian football feel like it's back on top. But behind the glow, Italy U21 coach Nicolato's article in The Roma Sport reveals the real situation. The average of only 2.7 players per Serie A club is now the Italian national youth team's age-appropriate players, who play only 4% of the total playing time, and more than 80% of the young players play after the game is 70 minutes later. In the past, the national youth team was formed around Serie A players, now we are formed around Serie B players, and one day we may even be formed around Serie A players.
The pride of Italian football was youth training, but youth training can no longer produce good players in large numbers, which has become a growing problem in Italian football. So, missing the World Cup finals for two consecutive editions counts as the darkest moment of Italian football? Probably not yet...