Italy have failed to even reach the World Cup play-offs final, losing at home to North Macedonia in stoppages after wasting so many scoring opportunities.
North Macedonia will face Portugal in Tuesday’s final for a place at Qatar 2022, but Italy will not participate in the second consecutive World Cup.
The Azzurri would’ve already been at the World Cup if not for two failed Jorginho penalties both home and away in draws to Switzerland. Roberto Mancini had to do without Leonardo Bonucci, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Federico Chiesa, Leonardo Spinazzola, Andrea Belotti, Gianluca Scamacca and Rafael Toloi, with Giorgio Chiellini only fit for the bench, so it was a completely makeshift defence. Napoli midfielder Eljif Elmas sat out a ban for North Macedonia, who finished second to Germany in their group.
Italy had a series of shots charged down as they pinned their opponents back in the opening stages, but Domenico Berardi looked a gift horse in the mouth, as Stole Dimitrievski gave it straight to him, but the Sassuolo man took an extra touch and tried to pass it into the empty net, allowing the goalkeeper to recover his position.
Moments later, Ciro Immobile’s effort was deflected over from a tight angle, then Dimitrievski got down to palm a Lorenzo Insigne scorcher round the post.
Immobile had a similar problem when set up by Marco Verratti, again taking too many touches and hesitating so the defender managed to close him down.
More shots were charged down from Verratti, Immobile and Insigne, but Alessandro Florenzi had to sprint back and make a decisive tackle on the edge of the area to stop Darko Churlinov going clear on the counter.
Former Palermo player Aleksandar Trajkovski also tested Gianluigi Donnarumma from distance, which was North Macedonia’s only shot of the first half compared to Italy’s 16.
Berardi managed to get one of his attempts through the wall of defenders, but straight at the goalkeeper, then moments later whipped another wide of the far post. The Sassuolo man also blasted over with his weaker foot from the edge of the area.
Berardi thought he had scored when chesting down an inspired Verratti ball over the top and hitting it on the half-volley from six yards, but Ezgjan Alioski got back for a sensational block.
Alessandro Bastoni’s header from Italy’s 12th corner of the game was plucked out from under the bar, while Giacomo Raspadori blasted not far over at all and Lorenzo Pellegrini rolled one across the face of goal rather than go for it himself.
Giorgio Chiellini and debutant Joao Pedro came on for the final minute, but deep into stoppages it was North Macedonia who scored with only their third shot on target of the entire game.
It was former Palermo player Trajkovski who had a pot-shot from distance, it bounced right in front of Donnarumma and into the far bottom corner with the kind of precision Italy had lacked all night.
Florenzi’s final attempt was deflected the wrong side of the post by Joao Pedro.
Italy 0-1 North Macedonia
Trajkovski 92 (NM)
Ventura had mutch weaker squad and Spain in group…
Absolute disgrace!!!
That Euro win was a fluke and Italy have gone back to the dark days. Mancio has to go regardless of that Euro success. To not qualify for the world cup is an earthquake 12.7 on the richter scale. The only thing worse is if Italy starts to look at PhD Max.
Now Chipland has one less contender to perhaps fluke it from corners or set pieces.
Sorry, we forgot Italy is european champion.
🤷
Macedonia!
Bye bye Mancini. And take Immobiliser with you.
Barella biggest flop , not only this match , last 60 games ..
An absolute disgrace, and he kept sticking with the Immobile, Mancio is done, you can’t go from winning the Euro’s to this, disgraceful
Since Italy squad is no longer based on Juve players, it doesn’t have an identity anymore!
I think mancini held to long on players like Immobile and insigne they are not consistent for Italy national team.
Italy must understand they are a country where football is at a low point no clubs get past in Europe and tonight was a disgrace common how an Earth loose at home to Macedonian
This is not real
It’s not a player fault it’s the youth not getting in or immobile think he is leading the scoring
Mancini played scared. Doubling down on Euro even though they were without best players from Euro (Chiesa and Spinazzola). Well Roberto, look what happened.
Berardi belongs at small club.
Immobile is crap except for penalty shots.
Could have used Zaniolo for this game. He would have created opportunities that wouldn’t have been blocked.
@Lord Allegri yep things will get even more comedic if Italy makes advances with Allegri. I hope not as that will mean even Lithuania will beat them.
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE A LEAGUE CHALK FULL OF FOREIGNERS AND THOSE IN CHARGE DO NOTHING TO CORRECT THIS.
THANKS JORGINHO. 2 AWESOME PK’S ARE YOU AND ONLY YOU.
Same old story, can’t score. Are we done with Immobile yet? Tear it down
Look at any serie A games How many Italians are playing ? When you need to call up non Italians to play nationally. There is a big problem
Immobile worst Italian national player for the last 2 years.
They deserved not to go to the World Cup.
MACEDONIAAAAA
No worries they will fail again for 2026 and that will be the Tripleta lol.
BRAVO BRAVO BRAVO MACEDONIA !!! Now the whole world knows how good we can be !!!
Brandon you have no clue about what is going on. It has nothing to do with too many foreigners. England is full of them and yet they qualified despite being in yet another hand me down table full of cannon fodder. The difference is they take care of cannon fodder. If you cannot defeat the Macedonians that sums up the mentality in a nutshell. After Germany were humiliated in by England 5-1 decades ago they revamped everything. Italy are still playing in stadiums not upgraded since 1990. The league is terrible, the tv rights deal generate less then lower league EPL clubs and the mind set is too traditional.
Serie A should fold completely . If this isn’t humiliation I don’t know what is . This is actually worse than 4 years ago . Who knows maybe we go back to back euro champs now ?
IMMOBILE by name IMMOBILE by nature. The guy only scored lots in Italy as the standard is terrible. This farmer went to Germany and Spain and look at his real level. Gone are the days when they had Vieri, Del Boy, Inzaghi, Totti and so on.
taly need to focus on youth development and starting Italians in Serie A Teams. Stop buying players abroad and develop the foundations from home grown talent.
Heavy focus on defenders and attackers is needed.
Players like Zambrotta,Nesta Cannavaro Pirlo Gattuso Baggio Totti Del Piero Baggio need to be turning up to Italy national training sessions and implementing their knowledge and attitude to the youths.
Heavy heavy focus on development is needed.
Italy were not clinical tonight and lacked that confidence.
It’s good Italy went out so they can learn from this.
I can hear the sirens calling. Arise Lord Allegri Italy needs the slow ball for 2026 failure.😂
It´s coming to North Macedonia! Greetings from London
@Carl
hahahahahaha. And you can talk?? who are you?
@Carl Binucci did not eat his pasta lol.
Missing Chiesa was terrible for this match as he is extraordinary player. Mancio should have give Balo a shot instead he give the average player Joao Pedro his debut in such a crucial match. Shame on Macini for underestimating N.Macedonia
Hey Carl enjoy your 1 and only rusty cup
This is a monstrosity of epic proportions.
Even more so is everybody in here was warning Mancini to not call back certain players and he stubbornly ignore the pleas.
Did you really think that Balotelli would not have poured his heart and soul into that and score a goal even if he had to throw himself into the net with the ball. Mancio played it safe with the status quo and that’s what you get.
That team is N Macedonia, I think it’s Serbs and they are excellent players, not minnow at all.
In the meantime investigators kept raiding Juventus offices which matters most in the world of Italy football!
Jarod shush stop trying to big up the Macedonians. This was an effing disgrace full stop and any one trying to say otherwise is living in cuckoo land. Failing to qualify once shame on you, but twice shame on me. 4 times WC winners and current Euro holders losing to a minnow nation in football. What next North Korea?
after the second consecutive failure it is time for all clubs in Italy to understand – stop using so many foreign players, turn to your own footballers. This is the only chance. For example Udinese don’t have any Italians in the squad.
@Carl, Italy has 4 World cups & 2 Euros. They are the reigning European Champs. I doubt anything will come to England anytime soon. Greetings from Canada. 🙂
@Jarod
When has Balotelli ever poured his heart and soul into anything other than being a man-sized child?
He’s finished, and clearly not good enough.
When u c Berardi, Insigne and Immobile as the front three, hopelessness.
Bastoni and Florenzi as the backend, despair.
Berardi scores every two hundred shoot?
A team consist of 70% mediocre players from small clubs, just a repeat of last failure.
Italy will qualify 4 next World Cup because Juventus r building an Italian based squad.
Hint: when the opposition proves they can counter all your tactics then try new tactics.
The only positive for me is next time they try to qualify for the world cup I’ll be too old to remember this.
Not only Mancini lined up Immobile but he made him captain! Just to show his power and piss off the critics even more. Too bad that his huge arrogance led to Italy not qualifying and crushed so many hearts in the process…
Do not worry Andy we will be hear in another 4 years talking about the defeat to Luxembourg and they will lose in their own back yard again. That is doing it in style to make matters worse.
after a second consecutive failure, it is time to take really adequate measures. all clubs need to limit the use of so many foreign players. For example, there is not a single Italian in Udinese
Worst feeling as a supporter is to deal with this until the WC is over. THAT WAIT when all other teams are preparing and their fans eagerly awaiting. 8 months!
So gutted .. hope this doesn’t impact my poor health further 🙁 And on top of this .. someone replied to my 8 months old comment on Italy’s Euro victory on YT mocking me!
@CARL
A simple question:
Would you rather not have won against this ordinary Italy a few months ago instead of bottling it in front of the whole world?
It’s not Italy’s fault that England will always have this mental pressure that will always and always paralyze them.
Nothing to do with foreigners. England is full of them. They took Macedonia for granted and that Euro win made them complacent. Forget the injuries a B team should be taking care of them. Start rebuilding your infrastructure first. The Stadio Maradona looks like something out of zombie apocalypse.
Wtf just happened
Absolute disgrace of a result. Having 32 shots on goal without scoring is not unlucky, it’s terrible incompetence and shows a severe lack of finishing quality. And it’s happened many more times before tonight, during qualifying.
We couldn’t beat Bulgaria at home, Switzerland at home (or away) or Northern Ireland, did this not ring alarm bells with Mancini? Without Spinazzola and especially Chiesa we could not play the same way that we did during the early stages of Euro 2020. If we as fans can see this then so should Mancini; it’s what he’s paid for.
So disappointed, didn’t think this would happen again so soon after the last World Cup.
Anyway, @Carl, we could fail to qualify for the next two tournaments and would still have more trophies than England, so enjoy the cobwebs in the St George’s Park trophy cabinet
It was a frustrating game to watch. North Macedonia was playing 10 man defense. Italy needed forwards that could hit the ball long range. Someone like Balotelli would have been a better choice to play in this game, not Pedro. Win or lose, always proud of Italy.
This is what you get when your serie A teams have no Italian players on them .
March 24, 2022. John. Balottilli could have scored most of the goals Verratti missed.
Sport do not win it for their fans.
They win it for themselves when they can for the $$$$and glory.
It was a valiant no luck for the Azzurri today, as we have been accustomed to for many years.
We cannot win it every four years.
1st 1934 to 2nd 1938 wins….4 years.
1938 to 3rd 1982 win……44years.
1982 to 4th. 2006win…….24years
We have been beaten occasionally by weaker nations.
1966 North Korea beat us 1-0.
2002 South Korea beat us 2-1 in extra time with 3 minutes left.
2022 North Macedonia beat us 1-0 in injury time.
Hopefully in the coming years there will be no:
South Macedonia or
Middle Korea formed to prolong these disappointing losses.
My algorithm tells us we are due to win it all for the 5th 2030 win…24 year span.
I will be 80 and no more WC wins for me.
Forza Canada.
Devono ricominciare a mangiare la pastasciutta e la zuppa inglese!!!Hai Capito!!!
There’s nothing wrong with the Italian team
They made a mess of the qualifiers
And juggling the nations league.
It was clear throughout the euros the the only weaker link was the striker position
And they stocked with that weak link that cost us dearly
I was in favor and fully supported a balotelli return
Maybe not as a starter but an impact sub
Mancini demise was his faithfulness
Belotti now came back from injury
But was selected
It’s unfortunate
Maybe bonnuci and chiellini influenced the decision against balotelli inclusion
It’s sad because I believe this team at full strength could of gone all the way
My comments are not getting posted 🙄😥
In such matches you need a tall strong target man good at headers being fed pointed crosses into the box…
it is going to take a long time to get over this one
I have posted many times that Immobile spends too much time raking the the bangs off his forehead and eyes.
You can see this fault in his play interferes in not being able to receive the ball at his feet , with his back to the goal.
Every missed play “there he goes “, brushing the the bangs out of his face.
It is interfering with his vision and field comfort.
It is surprising that this is not noticeable by the Azzurri coaching staff.
Unfortunately you will no longer be able to concentrate on this habit unless you are a Lazio fan.
Not even surprised. This is Lippi all over again, sticking with former winners despite those players having regressed. In times of need for fresh faces Mancio thought it’s a good idea to stick with Immobile and Insigne instead of the more in form Raspadori from the beginning and Zaccagni/Caprari who are left at home. Same tactic, no plan B, this is all on him.
Italy can’t score goals it’s simple as that the top scoring Italian Immobile as side from Lazio no bigger club ever wanted him the top scoring leader of any leagues always wanted by bigger clubs except Imobile!!! Jorghinio and Verrati does wonders for their respective clubs but they sub part when they play for Italy. Donaruma couldn’t make one save to keep Italy alive . Mancio did the same mistake Lippi did after winning the World Cup in 2006 . The best way to follow is the German way go all youth it will pay off. Why call in Balotelli if u were not gonna use him?
Italy win trophies, English win nothing. Facts are facts
We’ve gone from winning the euros to not even going to the World Cup we have to blame that rubbish league there all playing in seria a it’s awful you have to understand most of these players will never improve if there playing rubbish every week this is why when they face English or Spanish teams you can say bye Italian football has gone down hill for so many years now and there needs to be change to much red tape behind the scenes not enough youth coming though if I was any half decent Italian player I would leave seria a as you can see it’s affecting you at the highest level come to the premier league to really improve yourself as a player we have no striker immobile is awful
Italy lost it in the Switzerland games. Should have won at least one and missing 2 penalties at this level changes things dramatically. In the end, it’s about scoring and Italy didn’t do it. The game player is there but the attackers are sadly lacking. No Chiesa this time and it made the difference in getting through a parked bus. Still, Italy missed absolute sitters so I can’t blame Mancini on this one. Attacking from start to finish. Shame to miss out but good luck to Macedonia.
Twenty-seven shots against Bulgaria, they missed penalties in both games against Switzerland and 32 shots to four against North Macedonia. Insigne wasn’t there. Neither was Ciro Immobile, who was overthinking everything. The only real problem in the front three. How many would Vieri has scored last nigtht? Almost any other Italien striker from the last 50 year would has bagged at least two and we would be saying that the team played well.
By 2026, it’ll be 20 years Italy hasn’t reached a knockout game in the world cup.
And 12 years they’d even have qualified.
The nice euro performances can’t hide the fact that on the world scene, Italy is not a big nation anymore.
The euro journey was awesome and I am grateful for it, but to me, it really feels as if it was more of a short euphoric experience where the outsider beats the real big guns.
#Outline