The Italian media has reacted to the failure to reach the World Cup, with one newspaper calling it “an intolerable footballing shame”.
The Azzurri drew 0-0 with Sweden last night, with the defeat in Solna meaning Giampiero Ventura’s side will not be going to the World Cup.
This morning’s Italian papers were damning in their assessment of the CT and the team.
Corriere dello Sport
In the Corriere dello Sport, Ivan Zazzaroni called the elimination “an intolerable footballing shame, an indelible blemish.”
The Italian media has reacted to the failure to reach the World Cup, with one newspaper calling it “an intolerable footballing shame”.
The Azzurri drew 0-0 with Sweden last night, with the defeat in Solna meaning Giampiero Ventura’s side will not be going to the World Cup.
This morning’s Italian papers were damning in their assessment of the CT and the team.
Corriere dello Sport
In the Corriere dello Sport, Ivan Zazzaroni called the elimination “an intolerable footballing shame, an indelible blemish.”
“It’s over. Apocalypse, tragedy, catastrophe. Call it what you want, but please don’t talk about a system that doesn’t work. Our football is in serious crisis, but not inferior to the Swedish or the Swiss,” he continued, before noting “Ventura faced the shootout at the OK Corral with a team he’d never considered during his two years”.
In the same newspaper, Patrizio Cacciari said “the Azzurri paid for Ventura’s choices, confusing and contradictory, in the two decisive team selections against the Scandinavians.”
The end of the international careers of several legendary figures was also acknowledged: “Here ends the history of so many champions: [Gianluigi] Buffon, [Andrea] Barzagli, probably [Daniele] De Rossi. It will take a refoundation, a breath of fresh air, a national team with an identity, which we inexplicably renounced during the qualifiers.”
Tuttosport
Turin’s sports daily Tuttosport described Ventura as “a total failure”, with Davide Palliggiano pointing out that “He inherited a national team with [Antonio] Conte’s character and left it in a state of total confusion. Sweden will be at the World Cup, whether we like it or not.”
For him the most striking image of the night was Buffon’s tears: “the Azzurri captain closes a wonderful chapter in a bad way. He deserved a sixth World Cup.”
Gazzetta dello Sport
“We’re out of the World Cup for the first time since 1958. We, the four time World Champions, who for some reason pleaded damage after being drawn against Spain,” wrote Fabio Licari in this morning’s Gazzetta dello Sport.
“We’ve succeeded in achieving something that erases even the last two group stages, things which already seemed like a national tragedy.
“Instead Sweden go to Russia. Little [only technically, you understand] Sweden, ugly and modest but who parked the bus perfectly. Italy has little to brag about or boast our superiority.
“The only disappointment is to finish with a 0-0 where we were always in the opponents’ half, over 75 per cent possession and over 20 shots. If we’d played this way in the first leg we wouldn’t have this suffering, we’d be at the World Cup.”
Licari also lamented the failure to introduce Lorenzo Insigne: “instead the CT forces [Federico] Bernardeschi to play as a useless mezzala in a zone outside the Swedish box that was more crowded than Mumbai.”
His colleague, Luigi Garlando, was even more scathing about Ventura.
“If you don’t score a goal against a modest team like Sweden over three hours then you don’t deserve excuses,” he fumed.
“We witnessed unfathomable mysteries of the human mind: three central defenders kept on the field for 90 minutes against a team massed in their own area. A thousand crosses in an penalty box of giants; Insigne, the best Italian player, the only one able bust a bunker with his dribbling, chained to the bench.
“For two years he cultivated the attacking utopia of 4-2-4 then played for his life with three at the back.
“The best newcomer was Jorginho, the man about whom the CT said 'I don’t have a formation for him'. As if As if Didi, Vavà and Pelé were available.
“After the apocalypse comes Genesis. 'Let there be light!'. And there was light. In football the light is the game. Today we’re in the dark.”
La Stampa
Gigi Laranzini in La Stampa was slightly less harsh on the players, insisting “they put everything they had on the pitch, even more, and it really can’t be said that they didn’t try. They played with their hearts in their throats for the first half hour, at the expense of creativity and precision.”
Once again special praise was reserved for Gianluigi Buffon “as usual, the real captain who put his face forward, whose tears at the end of the game will be burned into the memory of everyone”.
Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera called the result “a black mark, brutal, indelible” before warning “Italian football is about to be battered by an unprecedented storm.”
La Repubblica
“The apocalypse has a dark blue colour,” wrote Francesco Saverio Intorcia in today’s edition of La Repubblica.
“It has the bitter taste of Gigi Buffon’s tears and breaking heart: there will be no sixth World Cup for him. He enters into legend, the only one to succeed.
“When Buffon went up to the Swedish box it really seemed like a moment of despair. He wanted to take us to the World Cup by himself, one last time. He didn’t have a team that was up to it, this time.
“Finding someone who remotely resembles him, to rebuild this national team, seems a long way away on this Milanese night.”