Italy play Turkey next week in possibly the most insensitive and meaningless friendly match in football.
Both teams lost their respective World Cup play-off matches in heartbreaking fashion yesterday. Turkey suffered a 3-1 loss to Portugal, but things could have been different had Burak Yilmaz not blasted his 85th minute penalty over the crossbar when things were still 2-1.
Italy fell to a last minute North Macedonia in their play-off in Palermo, breaking hearts up and down the Italian peninsula. Now both teams are forced to play a meaningless friendly on Tuesday March 29 at 19.45 UK time, a game which could be considered insensitive considering the fact that both squads will be full of incredibly downcast players.
Sweeping changes are needed in both Italian and Turkish football if either team is to recover in time for Euro 2024 in Germany, and this useless friendly is an incredibly strange way to move on from the play-off heartbreak.