Those few Italy fans who hoped to see Italy flying to Qatar in November had to surrender early as FIFA executive member Evelina Christillin said the idea of bringing the Azzurri into the World Cup is ‘utopia.’
There were reports that FIFA would take action after Iran barred women from entering the stadium for their World Cup qualifier against Lebanon. “We never discussed excluding them from the World Cup,” said Christillin. “Even if they were, it would be another Asian side that was promoted in their place.”
Not only Jorginho’s penalty kicks: the errors that led to Italy’s World Cup fiasco
It would be great to see the Azzurri defending their European champions status in Qatar, but that won’t be the case. And rightly so. Roberto Mancini’s men had many chances to take their spot at the World Cup. Jorginho will be infamously remembered as the man who fluffed two penalty kicks against Switzerland despite having a perfect record from the spot with Chelsea this season. But many other mistakes led to the Azzurri’s shock. From Alessandro Florenzi’s defensive error against Bulgaria in the first match after the Euros, to Domenico Berardi’s open-goal miss against North Macedonia.
Everyone is to be blamed, even Roberto Mancini, who perhaps showed too much gratitude towards the players who had helped him win the Euros. The team needed something different in some crucial areas of the pitch. If the European Championship has taught us something, it is that form of footballers is a crucial factor. Way too many Azzurri have not been at their best lately and perhaps should have been replaced, at least against North Macedonia.
However, what the coach achieved in the summer can’t be underestimated or just considered a lucky shot. Italian football is in a far better place than four years ago, when Gian Piero Ventura lost against Sweden, missing out on Russia 2018. There are more young and emerging talents now as well as young and exciting coaches in Serie A. Italian football wasn’t perfect nine months ago and is not rotted now. There were errors on the pitch that have been paid dearly. Perhaps, as Leonardo Bonucci said, the qualification system is not totally fair, as Italy lost just one game during their path, while some South American teams will play in Qatar regardless of their six or seven defeats. However, he also admitted that Italy have no excuses and should have done better, learning a lesson for the future. Now, that’s all Italian football must focus on, as seeing the Azzurri at the World Cup is just an unfair dream.
Leonardo is correct. Yes, an unfair system but we lost and now just get on with it. I am fed up reading about this possibility. It will not happen and it’s FIFA’s lost as well. We should now concentrate on playing well against Argentina on 1 June and then defend our European Cup. Out of the 2 WC, it is best that we had failed only this one and not 2018 as this is a bizarre WC anyway. Forza Argentina for the WC 2022.
The fact that most of our u21 play in Serie B says it all and wouldn’t surprise me this happens again, Look at the leagues in Spain, England & Germany all their u21 play in the first league so they are constaly being developed and there’s always fresh blood to pick from. Until Italy starts focusing on the youth and rather sending them to Serie C or B until they are 25 or older don’t be so shocked about this happening again
@TONINO – well said, and agreed. If we were ever going to miss a world cup (not based on squad potential obviously as the current squad could have been up their – at least in terms of the quality of current national teams – with one of our best chances to win it) this is probably the one to miss due to location and timing, zero summertime buzz / sadness in our case due to the finals being played, as it’s a winter tournament. Also the fact that when it’s done, it will only be 18 months from the Euros.
So many things had to go wrong for Italy not to qualify.
– Top of our group on points before the Euros.
– Winning the Euros and not being given an automatic place…
– Notorious honeymoon period post tournament win (teams historically play badly after a win for a period of time usually during qualifiers).
– Bad selections by Mancini – not picking in form players. Had a few bites of the cherry including the Nations league squad.
– Bulgaria draw at home – due to a Florenzi mistake – a player that should have been no where near the current Italy squad. Had we of won this match, we could have beaten Ireland and drawn with Switzerland twice and gone through.
– Jorginho penalty miss number one vs Switzerland away (his second in a row counting the final against England) plus countless missed chances.
– Pointless nations league in Italy in-between world cup qualification games, which was over the minute Bonucci was sent off. First loss to Spain was bad for momentum
– Nations league squad selection – Manci not utilising this as an opportunity to give younger and in form players a chance especially with all the big games ahead including the Argentina final in the Summer and the World Cup qualification at stake.
– Jorginho missed penalty number two against Switzerland (despite the fact he’d missed his previous two for Italy in crucial matches, the second being against the same team and goalkeeper who saved his last penalty) – Bonucci should have stepped up, Jorgi’s momentum was gone from the Euro Final miss.
– A win against Ireland by a better goal difference than Switzerland, always tough but not impossible.
– A new format for playoffs, rather than 2 legs vs one team, 2 single legs favouring the team that gets a home double header.
– First time two big teams go to the playoffs, Italy and Portugal, three path options yet both drawn on the same section, from that moment the negativity kicked in psychologically, players heads in the clouds focused on Portugal away rather than dealing with a so called given against Macedonia at home. A messy format which ultimately turned into pot luck – just look at Poland one game to qualify by no fault of their own, but Sweden had two, was that fair on Sweden and the rest…
– Chiesa our best player and Spinazzola out.
– Not a deciding factor but Palermo was a bad choice of stadium zero atmosphere – Rome / Milan or Juve, Rome may have suited misfiring Ciro for home comforts.
– Mancini still picking the wrong players – namely Insigne current form, Immobile national team form. No wild cards in the squad from Balotelli, Kean, Zaniolo to Scammaca (debatable injury) or players within the squad on better form starting i.e. Pellegrini, Raspadori, even Politano who I’m not a big fan of all better options than Insigne.
– Despite all the mishaps above we still had a chance…
– Still we dominated the game against Macedonia with 30 plus chances and then conceded a 92 minute out of the blue goal from a goal kick, the type of goal we’ll probably never concede ever again. Could have Bastoni done better with the header? Could have Donnarumma saved it? Yes to both probably.
Tweak most of the above factors, results in a different situation to the one we have now. But looking at the above, nearly all that had to happen for us not to qualify and it did, so clearly it wasn’t meant to be, sadly.
That is a perfect summary. Well done. Even if it is making me sick to read over! I think only one thing is missing: the over reliance on the 4-4-3, which simply doesn’t seem to work for Italy without Spinazzola. Look at Italy’s performances starting with Spinazzola’s injury: they struggled to score from open play, and became too predictable, especially Insigne. Mancini had enough games to recognize this and make adjustments. This team is too good not to be at the World Cup. What a shame.
Mick, a good summary. I’ll add a few more points.
1. Predictability – Mancini stuck with a predictable 4-3-3, making us easy to prepare against. When playing N. Ireland or Macedonia, do we need four defenders when those teams will just sit back all game? A 3-5-2 would have made more sense for these games.
2. Squad Selection – Why on earth has Florenzi been consistently selected above Calabria? Nobody on Earth can explain this to me. Also, why didn’t Biraghi get a chance over Emerson on the left, who is clearly incapable of positively influencing the game? Additionally, Insigne has been a disaster from the second Spina was injured. How could he have been preferred over Pellegrini from Roma?
3. Qualifying Group Draw – We were unfortunate to have a trickier draw. England’s qualifying group (and Germany’s) were much easier. Having one other strong team in our group (Switzerland), with a dropoff after this, leads to a tough situation where a minor mishap could be devasting – the same almost happened to Spain, with Sweden in the group. For a while, it looked as though Spain would not win that group.
We had some very unfortunate luck, as outlined by Mick’s rationale and the other two points I’ve added. Despite this, even in the games we didn’t win, we dominated play and simply missed many of the chances we created. If we keep up the positive play, we’ll do well in the future.
The upcoming Nations League will be a good test with England and Germany in our group – we can test our mettle against these top teams. I think we can win this group with some finishing. Before then we have a decent chance to beat Argentina, at Wembley on June 1, in what will likely be Chiellini’s last game with Italy.