Italy will take no part in the World Cup in Qatar

North Macedonia faced a tough team in Italy at Palermo in their bid to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.

Italy, Euro 2020 champions have suffered a shock defeat to at the hands of North Macedonia. They champions lost at home an Aleksander Trajkovski strike.

Roberto Mancini and his men could not break the stern defense of Macedonia.

The Italian manager said “Last July, I had the biggest joy in my career at the Euro. Now, I just lived the biggest disappointment. This is football, sometimes incredible things happen. It’s difficult for me to analyze this game, I didn’t even look at the stats. We totally deserved to win the European Championship, but the luck that favored us eventually turned its back on us.”

Italy dominated the whole game. They had 32 shots but none of them could find the back of the net.
Roberto Mancini who led the Italians to a Euro title last year termed this defeat as the “biggest disappointment of his career”.

An unexpected result that would raise many fingers at the team.

They finished below Switzerland in the table. Jorginho that game had his penalty saved by Yann Sommer.

That draw meant Italy had to beat Northern Ireland to qualify. But, they failed to do so.

Italy drew half of their 8 matches and as a result, missed out on a direct berth at the FIFA World Cup, 2022.

They were drawn against North Macedonia. A win against them would have a blockbuster showdown vs Portugal(if they won against Turkey).

Also read: https://www.sportstrumpet.com/portugal-vs-north-macedonia-for-place-in-the-world-cup-2022/

This meant either the Euro 2020 champions or the Euro 2016 champions would miss out on the World Cup.

But, Italy failed to get past the first hurdle in North Macedonia and as a result miss out on the World Cup second time in a row.

The last time they played in the World Cup was against Uruguay in the group stage at Brazil, 2014.

A well earned win for North Macedonia leaves them 1 win away from a World Cup spot.

They face Fernando Santos’s men on Tuesday, 29th March in Porto.