Silvan Widmer’s incredible strike was cancelled out by a smart move finished by Giovanni Di Lorenzo, when Jorginho missed another penalty in Italy’s 1-1 draw with Switzerland on Friday night.
Switzerland seemed eager to push the Italians back and were determined to give the Azzurri a game for the three points.
The midfield battle started in favour of the Swiss, who kept on giving the home side a hard time, but when the Azzurri finally established in the visitors’ half, was when the first goal arrived.
However, it was at the other end, as Murat Yakin’s men broke and countered at left with Noah Okafor, who accelerated to beat Giovanni Di Lorenzo in a battle for the free ball and did enough to let his teammates arrive at the edge of the Italy box.
Okafor pulled it back to a Silvan Widmer charging forward and the former Udinese defender struck the ball perfectly from 25 yards out.
Gianluigi Donnarumma barely reacted before the ball was in the back of the net and the guests had taken the lead after 11 minutes.
It was a wake-up call for Roberto Mancini’s men and the CT seemed more and more frustrated in the dugout.
The players tried to respond and Nicolò Barella came very close when Jorginho’s attempt was blocked and ended up at his feet from six yards.
Yann Sommer, however, did well to react in time and blocked the attempt from the Inter midfielder.
Eventually, the Azzurri responded from a great free kick by Lorenzo Insigne, who made a dummy with Emerson Palmieri before swinging it in with his right foot.
The timing was perfect by Giovanni Di Lorenzo who beat Yann Sommer to the ball and helped Italy respond before half-time.
The Napoli full-back grabbed the equaliser after 36 minutes and the Azzurri had the momentum going in at the interval.
But it was back to square one when the teams came back out from the dressing rooms and Mancini decide to make changes early on.
After 58 minutes, he introduced Sandro Tonali and Domenico Berardi, taking off Manuel Locatelli and Andrea Belotti, who both gave the team some fresh legs for a while.
But the biggest chance came with Insigne, who cut inside from a short corner kick and his effort went via Zakaria on its way to the target and Sommer did well to stop the deflection.
Italy introduced further players and tried everything to grab the winner, while Switzerland were also pushing for a possible opportunity.
When the ball was played over the top to Berardi, substitute Ulisses Garcia was late for the duel and pushed the winger in the back. He went down but referee Anthony Taylor didn’t give anything.
VAR checked the situation and called for the English referee to take another look, and the match official eventually pointed at the penalty spot.
Jorginho stepped up right before time and decided against the famous jump before the finish and this time he smashed it over the bar, his second miss from the spot against Switzerland and Sommer.
The guests threatened to score at the other end immediately, when Zakaria went on a solo run, dropped the ball but continued to chase the back pass to Donnarumma.
The Italy goalkeeper’s pass was blocked by the Gladbach player and ended up at the feet of Andi Zeqiri, who only had to direct it towards the open goal. But his contact was not pure and it went wide.
A dramatic end to a slow second half and both teams leave with one point each and status quo in Group C. Italy and Switzerland are separated by two goals, as the Azzurri are still in the lead after the draw in Rome.
This is so typical of Italy. I’ve been watching them for 40 years. They always have a tendency to do things the hard way…..last minute, while making their fans sweat it out and a few heart attacks along the way……so we’ll beat N Ireland on Monday I guess……
Hey Jorginho, what happened to the “Bunny Hop” ??
The fault lies on Mancini…With other well-able kickers, he chooses the player who seems to be in a slump right now….The Papers wil schred Mancini tomorrow and bury him if they don’t make it to Qutar….
Two penalties missed against Swiss , 2 points lost against Bulgaria . Incredible , these guys going to playoff . Playing in n Ireland not easy and Swiss will hammer Bulgaria 4-0 or 5-0
Typical Italy !
What’s new 😏!
Switzerland having secured atleast 2nd place and playing away from home .. played with no pressure .. nothing to lose unlike Italy! Also Italy leaving aside the player omissions made it difficult for themselves! Should Donna have saved the goal .. is not playing regularly for Club affecting him?? Is Allegri ruining Loca and Chiesa?? Italy once renouned for their Defence, easily concedes goals these days …
As far as the missed Penalty … I will blame Mancini for this. However good a penalty taker is nerves can take over. After his miss last match against the Switz, Mancini shud have selected Bonucci and Berardi in the crucial Qualifiers as the penalty takers. Berardi scored against Belgium in the NL and recently hasn’t missed a penalty. Also I think Jorghino himself should have declined.
He talks a lot these days and comes across as extremely overconfident!!
Mancini should go for in inform players and not depend on certain players to bail the team. Why not pick Destro or Politano. Could have started Tonali in place of Barella who was carrying a knock. I would have even brought in Lucca to cause problems in the opponents box with his height and physicality being served with pin point crosses!!
TOO SCARED FOR THE NEXT MATCH 😨 ALSO A REQUEST TO FI .. PLEASE DONT PUBLISH NEWS RELATED TO VENTURA ATLEADT TILL THE QUALIFIERS ARE OVER!!
Thank’s for the speedy write-up! As I was unable to watch the match tonight! I’m a bit stunned but relieved too. Sounding like they could’ve even lost it at the very end after the missed spot-kick. Italy are +2 on GD over Switzerland and have scored 2 more goals. So they can afford to win by 1 less goal than Switzerland in the final game, if my maths serves me right. But hopefully it won’t be as close as that? They’ll have to play better by the sounds of it though. The defence seems shaky + the team doesn’t seem to have the same zip. They’re still having the possession, it was 62% in their favour at 1/2 time anyway but dare I say, goals are becoming increasingly difficult to find! Still, it could’ve been worse. It’s not the costliest result in the world.
One thing I didn’t understand (other than Italy’s terrible start to the match) was the introduction of Raspadori instead of Scamacca. Switzerland were defending with 10 men in and around their box at that moment. What was Mancini thinking bringing Raspadori on when there was no space for him to run into? We needed a player like Scamacca to help with his physicality and hold up play, also his aerial threat and his presence in the box.
Bring in Allegri now to sort out how to win 1-0 but credit to Switzerland they are a tough nut to crack🇨🇭💪
Azzurri have thrown away a mass total of 8 points last few crucial qualifiers.
2 v Bulgaria
4 v Swiss
-2 for Swiss in draws
they should be on 23pts or at least 21pts and already qualified.
never seen a footballer of year be such a choker…yet people think Jorginho deserves balon d’or too ? gthoh
They blew their chance now they go to playoffs . Bulgaria won’t give us a gift like Georgia have Spain . I see a 6-0 Swiss win which in that case Italy need 4-0 win . Ya good luck with that
Agree that Mancini made some wrong selections for starting XI, namely Belotti and Acerbi and then left it a little too late for changes. Jorginho should not have stayed on for the whole game, would rather have kept Locatelli on and have Tonali replace Jorginho by 60th minute. That would have given Azzurri better balance and of course would have meant someone else (Bonucci) taking that pen.
Northern Ireland are a poor team but will raise their game against the European Champions and Italia will have to be sharper and more clinical to win there to guarantee first place.
With messi on the list how the heck with jorg get his golden boot, plz now?
When we hit NI on Monday we better have a caboose load of ghostbusters. Celtic magic is a tuff nut to crack, they start that on us we’ll be kicking balls into the rafters. And actually I don’t think bulgaria is that easy of a team to beat, they’ve given us issues in the past. italy on NI 1-1 or 2-1 but goal i difference will swing slightly to switz maybe a 3-1, 3-2 on Bulgaria, italy hit playoffs and there will be an outcry to revamp the team.
There is no time to send the team to the vatican for a holy sprinkling so run to the grocer get a basket of lime, squeeze that into buckets with lukewarm water (this is a traditional thing done in the Caribbean islands), you take showers and pour this over yourselves a few days before the game, it’s lime someone asks what’s that smell, you had a margarita . DO SOMETHING!