European champions Italy failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup after a 1-0 defeat by North Macedonia, which was also their first home defeat. Aleksandar Trajkovski scored the only goal of the game in extra time, which is yet to face Portugal to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar 2022.
The Azzurri were missing one of their key players in Federico Chiesa with a cruciate ligament injury for qualifying. Roberto Mancini enjoyed great success with his Euros stint beating England at Wembley but they failed to repeat the same against North Macedonia.
37-year-old Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini after the game:
“I am proud of a team that gave everything. It is clear that we are devastated and devastated. A great emptiness will remain in us,” said Chiellini.
“It’s a big disappointment, we played well today too, but we couldn’t score. From September until today we made mistakes and paid for them.” The Juventus veteran added.
Italy midfielder Marco Verratti said North Macedonia’s stoppage-time goal was a ‘real nightmare’.
“This group had a great opportunity at the World Cup, we came from the unbeaten record so it’s difficult to accept what happened tonight,” said Verratti.
“We all know we gave our all, now it’s probably time to ask ourselves some questions.” The Paris Saint-Germain player added.
??? #Mancini: “Winning the European Championship was the best moment of my career. What happened tonight is my biggest disappointment.”#ITAMKD #Azzuri #VivoAzzuro #WCQ pic.twitter.com/YIMfp3Uq0C
– Italy ???????? (@Azzurri_En) March 24, 2022
Italy’s last World Cup match was on June 15, 2014, in a group match against England 2839 days ago.
Italy’s last World Cup KO game was on July 9, 2006 when they won the final 5737 days ago after beating France.
