Palermo-Italy missed out on the World Cup berth yet again for two consecutive campaigns after being ousted by North Macedonia. A shocking 92nd-minute winner by the latter scored by Aleksander Trajkovski saw Italy out of the tournament while North Macedonia went forward to face Portugal to make their way in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. While Italy’s elimination came as a shock to many after their successful Euro 2020 stint, it arises a lot of criticism on Roberto Mancini and his philosophies.
NORTH MACEDONIA!!! ONE OF THE GREAT UPSETS OF ALL TIME 🤯
AS IT STANDS, ITALY ARE OUT OF THE WORLD CUP! pic.twitter.com/DBRBcUhZC5
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) March 24, 2022
Roberto Mancini was credited with the resurrection of Italy, during Euro 2020. The 2006 WC winners won all three of their group stage games, eliminating Austria, Belgium, and Spain in the knock-out stages. They had their hands on the trophy after discarding England in the finals, 3-1 on the penalties. However, post the Euro 2020 win Italy has had fair shares of low. Their last regular-time victory was that against Belgium in the Euro 2020 quarterfinals. Between that and Thursday, the Champions of Europe have drawn six out of their nine games. On inspecting and retrospecting the events since then a lot of weak links on part of Italy come out along with some unfortunate events.
Italy have failed to qualify for back-to-back World Cups for the first time in their history 🇮🇹😢 pic.twitter.com/ryIq1I9jf8
— 433 (@433) March 24, 2022
One of the most striking aspects of the players under Mancini was that the players were equally dominant and the coach gave them their creative freedom. Even after making as many as nine substitutions in their ultimate group stage game against Wales in the Euro 2020, Italy managed to hold their consistency. However, Leonardo Spinazzola’s Achilles tendon injury in their game against Belgium seemed like a turning affair for the Italians. Ever since then the sheer one-sided dominance has started to seep out of them.
On dividing Italy’s team into sects, the front third is probably where Italy is the weakest. However, Ciro Immobile’s inability to replicate his goal-scoring spree for Lazio in the national colors has provided serious problems for the champions of Europe. While Roberto Mancini sticking to the stale attack of off for Lorenzo Insigne and Nico Barella has added to worries. On Thursday, against North Macedonia, although Italy dominated the numbers, it can be said otherwise as well. While Italy took 32 shots, they could register only five on the target, on the other hand, Macedonia has two on target out of four with one resulting in the goals. The number clearly indicates that Italy’s wastefulness upfront and low conversation rates by the front three has resulted in such a disaster for the European side.
