What did Jorginho say?
The [team 18] midfielder said, “It is difficult to explain what happened.
“It hurts so much. I’ll be honest, I am still incredulous. I don’t think we lacked creativity, as we always dominated matches and created so many chances. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish them off.
“We played good football, we won the European Championship last summer, but unfortunately in the last few games, we made small errors and were unable to recover from them. They made the difference.”
Talking about his penalties, he said, “It hurts when I think about it because I do still think about it and it will haunt me for the rest of my life. Stepping up there twice and not being able to help your team and your country is something that I will carry with me forever, and it weighs on me.
“People say we need to lift our heads and carry on, but it’s tough.”
Italy’s lack of clinical edge
Unbelievably, [team 18658] will not be at the world cup again! After missing out on Russia in 2018, the Italian federation worked hard to get their national team back on track. The plan worked brilliantly as they went on to win the [league 1326].
They finished second in the world cup qualifiers group and faced [team 18689] in the play-off semi-final. A hard-fought game that Italy massively dominated ended up as a historic win for the underdogs. North Macedonia defended admirably and scored a late goal to clinch a huge win.
It was another game in which Italy dominated but failed to convert their chances. This was a factor that was repeating itself time and time again. Two games against [team 18708], which Italy dominated, culminated in dropped points. [player 129511] missed one penalty each in both matches. They also conceded some very easy goals during the qualifiers due to childish mistakes.
As far as not taking chances is concerned, Italy were poor with the ball throughout the qualifiers and were rubbish in the final third.
Back in 2014, if someone said that Italy wouldn’t be at the next two world cups, anyone would have laughed at that statement. However, the reality now is bitter for Italy and losing North Macedonia is inexcusable.
Author: Devashish Akolekar
