Tears turn to fury at Azzurri
AFTER Italy’s shock and tears came the anger.
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”, “humiliation”, were the headlines across a stunned nation’s newspaper pages after their play-off defeat by 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.”
Boss Gian Piero Ventura is 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 groups stages in South Africa and Brazil.
Sacchi said: “This defeat isn’t a result of chance, just look at the two disastrous World Cups.
“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.
“We look for a scapegoat but an individual can’t solve the problems.”