Roberto Mancini was reeling from the most challenging loss in his career as a manager. The dramatic, last-minute 1-1 defeat to North Macedonia meant they missed the third World Cup.
Mancini became an icon of the nation for bringing the Azzurri back from the humiliation of not being able to make it to the 2018 World Cup and also the success of Euro 2020 last summer. But the level of performance has slowed in the wake of those warm summer nights.
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After a bungled automatic qualification process in November, Palermo eliminated Italy with a humiliating defeat in a highly contested play-off semi-final.
“Just as July was the most wonderful thing that has happened for me in my professional career This is my greatest sadness… I’m very sorry for my team,” Mancini told RAI.
“The regret is too overwhelming for me to talk about my future in the moment.”
If Mancini was not clear on whether the manager would remain, the president of the Italian Football Federation, Gabriele Gravina, made it clear that the Italian Football Federation wanted Mancini to remain in his position as manager despite another devastating blow to Italy’s football.
It was an ex- Palermo player Aleksandar Trajkovski, who surprised the European champions with his low strike in the second 2nd minute of stoppage time resulting in a qualifying final against Portugal to be played in Porto this Tuesday, for an opportunity to play at Qatar for the November tournament.
“We were able to score two shots and we won the game. We did it as Italians over the Italians,” said Blagoja Milevski, whose team will be playing Napoli’s EljifElmas returned from suspension in time for their journey to Porto.
‘I’m responsible.’
Mancini’s team was dismissed following a loss, and this means Italy will need to wait until at least 2026 before they have its national team in the World Cup.
It will then have taken 12 years to get back the last time they had an appearance in this world’s most prestigious football tournament after they fell out of the playoffs of 2017.
Amazingly Italy has not made it into this year’s World Cup despite only losing two times since the start of 2019 against Spain during the Nations League last autumn and on Thursday.
“It’s difficult to discuss the game that we played with 40 shots while they had a couple,” Mancini told reporters afterward.
“I’m the coach. When things go wrong in football, it’s the coach’s fault which is why I’m responsible.”
Italy was predicted to dominate the game, but as was the case in recent games, they struggled to take down a determined away team, and when they were presented with opportunities, they couldn’t grab these.
They should have led in the second half of the hour when Domenico Berardi was gifted the ball at an edge in the box to the goalkeeper, Stole Dimitrievski.
The Sassuolo’s winger, who has been in top form at his team, was unable to take too long to hit his shot through Dimitrievski’s warm arms.
Trajkovski Hero
The fans from home, whose anger was getting worse, we’re on the move applauding the name of an Italy hero just seven minutes before the break; however, it was Alessandro Florence to keep Darko Churlinov in giving North Macedonia the lead after the forward sprinted into a superb scoring position.
Berardi appeared to be Italy’s biggest threat and came close three times over five minutes during the second half. First launching a weak shot at Dimitrievski, before launching a second shot just wide seconds later.
And the 27-year-old was left with his head in his hands during the 58th minute after a stunning spin into a shot opportunity, the striker threw his left foot, which was weaker.
He was irritated again after the hour mark, when Ezgjan Alioski was thrown into a spectacular block following Marco Verratti had clipped Berardi through with his typically elegant ball.
Giacomo Raspadori then smashed a first-time shot across the bar from near the edge of the box. Gianluca Mancini fired into the bar as Italy continued to press, but not ever being able to break them down.
However, just as the game seemed to be headed towards an intense extra-time, Trajkovski struck an excellent low shot past Gianluigi Donnarumma, causing a third seismic tremor in Italian football.
