In what will undoubtedly go down as one of the most iconic upsets in the history of international football, North Macedonia stunned Italy 1-0 in a 2022 World Cup qualifier. Aleksandar Trajkovski scored a stoppage-time goal to clinch a spot in a winner-takes-all match against Portugal with a spot in the World Cup on the line and silencing the crowd at the Stadio Renzo Barbera.
The Balkan team's victory ensured that the Azzurri would fail to qualify for the global showpiece tournament for a second consecutive edition - something that has never happened before for one of the world's most decorated international teams. Prior to their failure to qualify for the 2018 tournament, Italy had qualified for every World Cup since 1962.
This was a match which the reigning European champions should have had no business losing. The Italians launched a veritable fusillade at the North Macedonian goal, attempting 32 shots compared to just three from their opponents. With 66% of the possession, Italy were fully in control of proceedings right from the opening kick-off. By every metric except for, of course, the most important one of all, Italy should have cruised to victory, but it was just not to be.
There's plenty of blame to be doled out for yet another failure on Italy's part. For starters, goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma deserves a good deal of scrutiny. A goalkeeper of Donnarumma's calibre should have been able to save Trajkowski's shot. However, the Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper made a crucial error in a critical match for the second time in a month after having already committed one which caused PSG to lose their Champions League round of 16 tie against Real Madrid.
Think back to Italy's victorious Euro 2020 campaign. In it, Donnarumma was Italy's best player, putting the team on his back at times and saving three penalties against England in the final to give Italy a first European title since 1968. Somewhat surprisingly, since then, he has faltered on multiple occasions when he has been needed most.
I have gone on and on about the effect which being at a club like PSG has on its players' mentalities. It appears that this is true in Donnarumma's case. When he starred for Italy during Euro 2020, he had not yet played even one match for the French club, but not even half a year after arriving at the Parc des Princes, his big-game mentality has severely declined. This isn't unique to Donnarumma - the same can be said of his PSG teammates Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, and even Lionel Messi.
Head coach Roberto Mancini must also shoulder some of the blame. Mancini got it completely wrong with Italy's starting 11. His decision to forgo Mario Balotelli as part of his team backfired. Though Balotelli has had a checkered and somewhat memetic career up to this point, his playstyle would have been the perfect counter to North Macedonia's tactical approach and would likely have led to one or more goals - not necessarily scored by Balotelli himself; however, his presence and physicality would have done much to open up the front third for his teammates.
Mancini's selection of Emerson Palmieri at full-back was also a poor one. Federico Dimarco and Cristiano Biraghi are both better options but were both ignored in favour of the Chelsea player. This reflects another failure on Mancini's part: blind loyalty to highly-capped players. Emerson has 26 caps to Biraghi's 11 and Dimarco's none; however, the latter two were overlooked despite being obviously superior players.
Serie A's top brass must also come under fire. They decided against postponing Matchday 30 of the domestic league, thus denying the players more time to prepare for this crucial qualifier. This reduced preparation time was also a likely contributor to their failure in Sicily - something almost everyone should have seen coming but which Serie A's administration somehow did not.
Regardless of whether Italy qualify for the 2026 World Cup, it will have been at least 12 years since their most recent tournament and at least 20 since their most recent appearance in the World Cup's knockout rounds. With the exception of France in the 1960s and 1970s, this is an unprecedented run of failure in the history of any of international football's traditional powerhouses.
Can Italy get back to the top of the mountain? They might - but it will take many years and wholesale changes at all levels.
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