“The Nightmare of 2018” and “The Irish Curse” are chasing the Italians again

The World Cup 2018 scenario came back to haunt the Italians after the European champions failed to reserve their direct ticket to the 2022 World Cup, due to a goalless draw in Belfast against Northern Ireland, to qualify for Switzerland, which was accompanied by England on Monday by sweeping San Marino 10-0.

In Group C, Italy will have to go into the play-offs again in order to try to qualify for the finals, after it fell to second place in favor of Switzerland, which won its guest Bulgaria 4-0.

Italy and Switzerland entered the last eighth round and are at the same distance with 15 points each, with the advantage of two goals in favor of "Azzori" crowned European Cup last summer, which made each of them search for victory to settle the group ticket.

Switzerland achieved the required quartet in Lucerne, alternately scoring Noah Okafor (48), Robin Vargas (57), Cedric Iten (72) and Remo Friuler (1 +90), while its neighbor Italy was unable to crack the defense code in Belfast, which will force it to play the play-off again, Hoping that the scenario of the 2018 World Cup will not be repeated when Sweden was eliminated and missed the finals for the first time since 1958. The Italians undoubtedly paid the price of the last round's draw at home against Switzerland 1-1 in a meeting that they missed in seconds a penalty kick through Jorginho.

The first-placed in each of the ten groups will qualify for the finals directly, while the runner-up teams will play a play-off between them, with the participation of qualified teams from the European Nations League to determine the identity of the other three qualified teams from the old continent.

Contrary to the old system, the play-off will not be held with direct confrontations from two home and away matches. Rather, the 12 teams will be divided into three tracks determined by a lottery, with four teams competing in each of them with a semi-final system (March 24-25) and a final match (March 28-29). The winner qualifies for the World Cup (three tracks = three qualified teams for each track).

And if Italy competed in the World Cup 2018 play-off for being in a group that includes Spain, then having to go through the same path is a surprise, not because Switzerland got the direct ticket, but because “Azzurri” is coming under the leadership of Roberto Mancini from crowning the European Cup and it was believed that he would have an easy task. .

Once again, Belfast was a "curse" for the Italians, as they had previously fallen 1-2 in the last round of the 1958 World Cup qualifiers and missed the finals for the first time before it was repeated after 60 years in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, but by Sweden in the playoffs.

"At the moment, that's it," Mancini said after the match. "We struggle to score goals even though we always control the game... It's a pity because we should have decided this set before this match."

But he insisted, in a statement to the Italian TV "Rai", that he believed his team's ability to qualify for the World Cup 2022 finals, which would have been destroyed without going through the supplement if "Azzuri" had not missed two penalties in his draw with Switzerland back and forth and on both occasions through Jorginho.

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