HUMILIATED ITALIANS SEEK SCAPEGOATS FOR CUP FAILURE

AFTER the shock and the tears came the anger in Italy.

And the search for scapegoats following the Azzurri’s catastrophic failure on Monday night to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 60 years.

“Disaster”, “nightmare” and “humiliation” were the words splashed across the stunned nation’s newspaper front pages after play-off defeat to Sweden. giuseppe Bergomi, a key member of the 1982 World Cup-winning side, said: “It is a humiliation that we are going out and they are going to the World Cup.”

Coach Gian Piero Ventura was the No.1 target and there were calls for Carlo Ancelotti, Antonio Conte or Roberto Mancini to replace him.

But Arrigo Sacchi, who took Italy to the 1994 World Cup final, claimed the calamity had been coming, after failure to get out of the group stages in South Africa and Brazil.

“This defeat isn’t a result of chance, just look at the two disastrous World Cups,” Sacchi warned.

“The right team is born of so many things, it’s not that one player makes the difference. Our problem is cultural, football is a team sport, not a personal one. In these cases we look for a scapegoat, we ease our

collective conscience this way but an individual can’t solve the problems.

“Ancelotti (inset) is great but we need to do so many things differently from the way we are, starting with the basics.”

Although Serie A is enjoying a resurgence due to foreign investment, the national team has as been in decline since the 2006 triumph and Conte’s genius papered over the cracks at Euro 2016. Italian TV reported yesterday that Ventura, 69, had tried to resign after Friday’s defeat in Sweden, when senior players complained about his tactics.

And the enduring image of the San Siro fiasco was defensive midfielder Daniele De Rossi arguing he should not be sent on in the second half.

He was caught on camera saying, “Why the hell should I go on? We don’t need to draw here, we need to win!” The Roma star later explained: “It was a fraught moment and I wanted them to bring on the attacking players. I thought maybe Insigne or El Shaarawy would be more effective than me.”

De Rossi added: “It’s a dark moment. It’s very bad that we’ve all been part of this and now we’re all going to have time to think.

“The Federation will now have to reflect on how we can put things right.”

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