In almost every major national tournament, there are several big-name teams that miss it. The selection system is set up so that sometimes the outsiders will beat the favorites and knock them out of qualification. In the case of Italy, a paradox happened – it became the winner of Euro 2020. Moreover, it was completely due to the game. The domestic championship is strong and has a lot of bright Italian players, as you can see by looking at the profile site with information about serie A results and table. However, that didn’t prevent them from embarrassing themselves twice and failing to qualify for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
This qualification was the first time that a system of two single elimination matches was introduced, and it was the kind of match where Italy dramatically lost to Macedonia in the very end. The problem of failure can be explained by the fact that the players simply could not readjust to a different format of play, when the original plan did not lead to a logical conclusion. In other words, possession was completely in the hands of the Italians, and there were dangerous chances. Often in such situations, a non-standard moment, the individual skill of a particular player, even an earned standard, decides the outcome.
However, 32 shots didn’t lead to anything. This is quite a rare situation, if you look at the statistics of matches in the same championship serie A, where there are many results of turning an overwhelming advantage into goals. Moreover, and table confirms the ability of great teams to crush the teams-outsiders. However, this was not Italy’s day.
Who can we blame for the poor result?
The fans want the leaders, the stars of the team, to show themselves in a difficult moment. Looking at football results today, we can see that the leaders are Insigne, Immobile, Jorginho and Veratti. Only Marco Veratti has received an acceptable rating. There are questions about the future. However, experts agree that:
- Mancini deserved the chance to make such a mistake by winning Euro 2020 and playing well in general, except for the qualifying matches.
- There is a resource of young and talented players who can make an interesting team in the future.
- This result is still more of an accident, as well as a drawback of the one-match system.
If you watch specifically Italian football, the results today show the presence of great young players such as Zaniolo or Raspadori. There are many other interesting personalities on the way to the main national team.
