Two Periods! Italy Makes History by Again Failing to Qualify for the World Cup

Italy again failed to qualify for the World Cup. After failing to go to Russia 2018, this time the owner of four World Cup titles failed to go to Qatar 2022. Four years ago, Gli Azzurri were tripped by Sweden. This time, they were knocked out by North Macedonia.

Italy had never previously missed two successive editions of the World Cup. This is the first time. Italy made a new history, but certainly not the history they wanted.

In the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers, Italy was unable to qualify automatically as group winners from the European zone qualifiers. They lost out to Spain and entered the play-offs, where they faced Sweden.

Gian Piero Ventura’s side lost 1-0 on aggregate and failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1958.

Roberto Mancini was then appointed as the new coach, and he successfully brought Italy to the Euro 2020 title. Italy seemed to have found a new passion.

After winning Euro 2020, Italy’s next target is to qualify for the 2022 World Cup

Italy is again in the play-offs, where this time the format is different. There are three Lines, namely A, B, and C. Italy is joined in Line C along with North Macedonia, Turkey and Portugal. The semifinal winner Italy vs North Macedonia will then face off against the semifinal winner Portugal vs Turkey in the final. Only one of these four teams will qualify for Qatar 2022.

Italy are favorites to beat North Macedonia. However, the opposite happened. Mancini’s men lost 0-1 at Renzo Barbera. Even more painful, the only goal that decided the visitors’ victory was scored by Aleksandar Trajkovski in injury time.

Italy has also failed to qualify for the World Cup twice in a row.

Italy’s failure to make Qatar 2022 sparked various reactions on social media, both from fans and not. Here are some of the tweets we could find.