Italy has never missed two consecutive World Cups: Roberto Mancini’s European champions have two games to avoid a historic failure and overcome the trauma of elimination in the playoffs for Russia-2018.
Source: AFP
“Our goal is to win the World Cup, but to win it, we have to win these two games,” the always optimistic Italian coach launched this week, who for the first time in his four years in office finds himself between a rock and a hard place.
To aspire to play the classification next week in Portugal, at Cristiano Ronaldo’s house, or in Turkey, the four-time world champion (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006) must first overcome the stumbling block of North Macedonia, this Thursday (19h45 GMT ) in a stadium in Palermo that will present a full house (30,000 spectators).
The danger for the Azzurra in this first tie is an overconfidence against the 67th world team, which has never before participated in a World Cup final phase, something that does not seem likely since after winning the last European Championship, Italy adds disappointments : ending the unbeaten streak in the Mancini era (37 games) in the League of Nations against Spain and, above all, giving up the automatic World Cup ticket to Switzerland, which finished first in the qualifying group.
– Nine survivors from Sweden –
Italy paid dearly for the two draws against ‘Nati’ (0-0, 1-1) in two games in which Jorginho missed two penalties that could have changed destiny, and another against Bulgaria (1-1).
This is how the queen of the draw (she was European champion on penalties) relives the nightmare of the World Cup playoffs, four years after losing against Sweden in a round-trip tie (0-1, 0-0) and staying out of the World.
An ‘apocalypse’ for a country that thus lost its first World Cup since 1958. And as a reminder of that fiasco, the nine players that survive from that team in the current team: Bonucci, Chiellini, Immobile, Belotti, Verratti, Insigne, Jorginho , Florenzi and Bernardeschi.
“It is understandable that they think about it, but we have to think above all about the most recent ones, about the victory in the European Championship”, declared Mancini to insufflate confidence.
“Maybe we shouldn’t find ourselves in this situation, but that’s football,” added the coach, who is “confident” in his players, who less than a year ago won “a victory that no one, absolutely no one believed in.”
Mancini is not worried about the psychological state of Gianluigi Donnarumma, whose mistake in the second leg against Real Madrid made it possible for the Whites to come back and eliminate his team, Paris SG, nor about the physicality of his old warriors, Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, in the recovery phase and who is expected in a possible final.
– Immobile at the decisive end? –
But beyond security in defense, Mancini’s team will have to recover their freshness in attack, although they will have to do it without Federico Chiesa, injured in the knee for the whole season, and above all, score goals.
For this he has Ciro Immobile, who finally seems to shine with the national team, with the Sassuolo Berardi-Scamacca-Raspadori trio, or with Joao Pedro, the Cagliari striker born in Brazil 30 years ago and who has been called up for the first time , preferring Mancini to Mario Balotelli.
Italy will have to be wary of North Macedonia, capable of causing a surprise despite no longer having its ‘hero’ Goran Pandev, withdrawn from the national team: the small Balkan country of just 2 million inhabitants has already made a splash in the group stage by beating Germany a year ago (2-1), securing second place in the group ahead of Romania and Iceland.
Napoli midfielder Eljif Elmas, scorer of the decisive goal against Germany, is suspended for Thursday but coach Blagoja Milevski, as confident as Mancini, has called him up for a chance at the eventual final.
