Jorginho admits after Italy failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, his two penalty misses will ‘haunt me for the rest of my life.’
The Chelsea midfielder saw one spot-kick saved by Yann Sommer, then fired another off target in stoppages during the other must-win game against Switzerland at the group phase.
Those results saw Italy finish second in the group and they were today beaten 1-0 at home by North Macedonia in the play-offs.
“It is difficult to explain what happened,” Jorginho told RAI Sport through tears.
“It hurts so much. I’ll be honest, I am still incredulous. I don’t think we lacked creativity, as we always dominated matches and created so many chances. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish them off.
“We played good football, we won the European Championship last summer, but unfortunately in the last few games we made small errors and were unable to recover from them. They made the difference.”
Those errors include the two Jorginho penalties against Switzerland and he knows full well the weight of this failure will be on his shoulders.
“It hurts when I think about it, because I do still think about it and it will haunt me for the rest of my life. Stepping up there twice and not being able to help your team and your country is something that I will carry with me forever, and it weighs on me.
“People say we need to lift our heads and carry on, but it’s tough.”