Italy will not participate in the forthcoming World Cup competition scheduled for Qatar. This will be the second time Italy misses out on World Cup.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place in Qatar from 21 November to 18 December 2022.
Italy lost 1-0 at home to little-fancied North Macedonia who scored the winner in injury time on Thursday.
It was a shock repeat of four years ago, when Italy failed to reach football’s global showpiece tournament for the first time since 1958.
But after the team’s victory in the European final against England last July, few people believed a repeat calamity was looming.
“Out of the world” was La Gazzetta dello Sport’s, the major sports newspaper in Italy, headline on Friday morning.
“Taking Roberto Mancini [team manager] to trial is a mistake. It’s the entire football system that needs to be rebuilt,” said an opinion piece in the newspaper.
Media reports suggest Mancini, who was hailed as Italy’s saviour after taking the side from World Cup omission to Euros glory, will probably leave.
“Let’s see,” said Mancini. “The disappointment is too big at present to talk about the future. I just don’t know what to say.”
Most of the big-name players, including the 2006 World Cup winners, remained silent and it was hard to find posts or comments on social media from the current players.
Corriere dello Sport and Tuttosport respectively had “To Hell” and “Noooooooooo” as headlines, with numerous articles of why the team lost the match and how the team’s performance got worse after the final in London last summer.
