What now for Italy after catastrophe of missing second World Cup in a row?
With a swipe of his right boot, Aleksandar Trajkovski sent Italy back in time: to November 2017, their lowest moment, a nightmare that a nation has spent four and a half years trying to escape. Back then, the head of the Italian Football Federation, Carlo Tavecchio, described missing out on a World Cup as an “apocalypse”. What word could describe a repeat of the end of all things?
Roberto Mancini was without answers in the wake of Italy’s 1-0 defeat by North Macedonia on Thursday. He took the blame on himself, but more than once reached for the same phrase as he fielded questions about the match and his future: “I wouldn’t know what to say.”
To fail like this was, on the surface, inexplicable. Italy, winners of the European Championship last summer, had held 65% of possession and taken 32 shots to North Macedonia’s four. There were no end of statistics to illustrate their superiority – from the corner count (16 to 0) through to expected goals (1.98 to 0.18).
And yet, there were few clearcut chances. Only when the North Macedonian goalkeeper, Stole Dimitrievski, passed straight to Domenico Berardi in the 29th minute, offering an open net, did a goal truly seem likely. The Italian
rolled the ball tamely into Dimitrievski’s arms.
You could call it an unlucky night. There was nothing inevitable in the fact that Trajkovski should bury his shot so brilliantly in the 92nd minute, even if he was back at the Stadio Renzo Barbera, where he played for Palermo in Serie B three years before.
Equally, though, this match was no outlier. Italy have sometimes seemed close to invincible under Mancini – setting an international football record as they went 37 matches undefeated, finally succumbing to Spain in the Nations League after playing for more than a half with 10 men. Yet they have not had a winning habit for some time.
Only two of their preceding nine matches ended with victory in 90 minutes. Penalties were required to overcome Spain and England in the final rounds of Euro 2020.
Profligacy got them into this playoff mess. The Azzurri took 27 shots to
Bulgaria’s four last September in a match that finished 1-1. They drew twice with Switzerland after Jorginho missed penalties that could have won both matches. Either would have sufficed to top the group.
Whose fault is it when a team forgets how to score? It would be easy to make a scapegoat of the centre-forward Ciro Immobile, who has three times fi