The Italians are under the shock of “Farewell to the World Cup” .. Italian newspapers: We lost a team forever

Today, Italy woke up to a state of shock, after it lived a dark evening in Palermo, with the national team exiting the European play-off and failing to qualify for the World Cup finals for the second time in a row.

After experiencing four years ago the disappointment of missing out on the world finals for the first time in 60 years, the Italians were optimistic with new coach Roberto Mancini, especially after winning the European Cup last summer.

But the surprise was achieved yesterday by North Macedonia, with a goal scored by the former Palermo striker and the current Saudi Al-Fayhaa, Aleksandr Trajkovsky in the deadly time (2+90), to give his country the card of the third track final of the European play-off qualifying for the World Cup Qatar 2022, where it meets Tuesday with Portugal in Porto.

A first defeat 

and more shocking. What happened is that Italy has never lost any home match in the history of its participation in the World Cup qualifiers, and entered the North Macedonia meeting with a record of 48 wins and 11 draws at home since the start of the qualifications for the finals starting from the second edition of the year 1934, when she beat Greece 4-0 in Milan on her way to later winning her first world title.

With great sadness, the newspaper "La Repubblica", in the wake of the great national disappointment, titled "Everyone is home," saying that what happened Thursday in Palermo constitutes "a farewell to the National Team, which we lost forever."

And the Italian team put itself in this position after it was satisfied in the last round of the European qualifiers group C with a goalless draw on Northern Ireland, which allowed Switzerland to snatch the card by beating Bulgaria 4-0.

The Italians undoubtedly paid the price of a 1-1 draw in the penultimate round at home against Switzerland, in a meeting that missed in the last seconds a penalty kick through Jorginho, who also missed a penalty kick against "Nati" in the first leg, which ended in a goalless draw in Switzerland.

On the eve of hosting North Macedonia, which also played a role in dragging Italy to the World Cup play-off 2018, (Sweden expelled it) after forcing "Azzuri" to settle for a 1-1 draw at home in the penultimate round of the qualifiers, Mancini commented on the two missed penalties, saying, "We could have Not being in this situation, but that's football."

Football is as cruel as it is beautiful, and veteran defender Giorgio Chiellini knows this, who entered Thursday's match in the second half to testify to the national disaster for a country that has won the world title four times.

"Now we are in a daze," Chiellini said. "It's hard to explain. I think we played a good game again and didn't score."

"We made mistakes from September (during the qualifiers) until now, and we paid for them. I'm proud of my teammates and this group. We have to start over."

I hope that Mancini, who has given so much to the national team, will remain.

On the offensive infertility, the Juventus defender said, "It's not as if we didn't create chances. We had 32 shots on goal."

However, unlike Chiellini, newspaper "La Stampa" considered that the team performed "a disastrous performance".

For the Milan-based newspaper, the exclusion of Italy heralds a "change of generation" and "re-establishment".

Gazzetta dello Sport was not surprised by what happened Thursday at the Renzo Barbera stadium in the Sicilian capital in front of full-capacity stands for the first time since the outbreak of the Coruna virus in early 2020. The sports newspaper said that "winning the European Cup was a happy interval between Years of disappointment in the national team and clubs,” referring to the end of Italy’s campaign in the first round of the 2010 and 2014 World Cups and its failure to qualify for the 2018 finals, in addition to the disappointment of Italian clubs and their modest results in the European Champions League.

What happened against North Macedonia "does not come as any surprise" to the newspaper "Il Messaggero", because it is "the result of years of free fall (deterioration)," she explained, "We have not won at the club level in European competitions since 2010 (when Inter won the Champions League). This drought The length is unprecedented in the history of European Cups.

For Serie A president Lorenzo Cassini, there must be "serious reflection and a profound change in the system," he said in a statement after the dark night in Palermo.

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