Well, how things change in a year. Back in July 2021, the Italy football team were on the top of the world. The Gli Azzurri had just defeated England at the Wembley Stadium to lift their second Euro title. This was a statement of intent from a team that had failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The Italians had been knocked out of World Cup contention in the play-offs by Sweden. However, they now had a settled team that could take them to Qatar. Unfortunately, however, they didn’t make it to Qatar. And it was more humiliating for the European champions as minnows North Macedonia knocked them out.
And any chance they had of salvaging some pride was thwarted by Argentina, who defeated them 3-0 in the Finalissima. And in a cruel sense of irony, it was at the Wembley Stadium where they suffered this agony.
So, what went wrong for the Italians?
🇦🇷 International trophy number two for Lionel Messi ✌️#Finalissima pic.twitter.com/c26sAVzafx
— UEFA Nations League (@EURO2024) June 1, 2022
A disaster in Palermo
When the Italy football team won the Euro last year, few people would have thought they would fail to qualify for Qatar. But on March 25, 2022, North Macedonia’s Aleksandar Trajkovski scored a stoppage-time goal to silence the Renzo Barbera stadium. The goal, a historic moment for North Macedonia, who knocked out a giant became a moment of horror for the home team.
Italy had been showing weakness as they had finished second in their qualification group behind Switzerland before meeting North Macedonia. However, they did not lose a single game but drew four. These included stalemates at home against Switzerland and Bulgaria.
Italy 0-1 North Macedonia.
Football remains undefeated. pic.twitter.com/tQOY3cGfGn
— VERSUS (@vsrsus) March 24, 2022
And these highlighted the lack of attacking cohesion in the team. This had been a problem for several years for the Italians.
We must look at the Euro 2020 to look at these problems.
Euro…
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