Italy got the final straw in the European Football Championship qualifiers in Germany. The Azzurri put an end to some ghosts of the past by beating North Macedonia 5-2, but for a moment things were in danger of going wrong again.
On Monday, Italy needs a point against their direct rivals Ukraine to qualify for the European Championship. This match will be played in Leverkusen, Germany.
Ghosts from the past
This situation still hurts Italian football. Great Italy, the reigning champions of Europe, were sensationally eliminated by North Macedonia in the World Cup play-offs in Qatar.
Aleksandar Trajkovski became the enemy of Italian football fans in Palermo that evening with an unstoppable slide in the 92nd minute.
This was the lowest score under national coach Roberto Mancini. However, Mancini’s successor, Napoli champion Luciano Spalletti, also failed to beat North Macedonia in his first match as a selection player.
The score was 1-1 in Skopje, and this result contributed to the Italians being back against the wall once again. The headline in the Italian newspapers was “Don’t fail.”
Chiesa scares the audience
At the Stadio Olimpico, the Italians knew that anything less than victory could be fatal. Moreover, it came as a huge shock when Federico Chiesa, who spent almost ten months recovering from a genuine knee injury last year, received a hard blow to his knee from Jovan Manev within two minutes.
Luckily the damage wasn’t too extensive and Spalletti was soon able to sit back and relax. His team played an excellent first half, where good positional play and high pressure put the North Macedonians’ backs against the wall. This quickly resulted in the opening goal.
After Raspadori’s goal was disallowed for offside, Darmian headed into the far corner from the corner: 1-0.
Jorginho missed again from 11 meters
Five minutes before half-time, the stadium was on its feet again when the Italians were awarded a penalty, but the tension was palpable when Jorginho stood behind the ball.
The native Brazilian has been known for years as a true penalty specialist, but he missed the penalty twice in the World Cup qualifiers against Switzerland. Because of these failures, Italy made it to the play-offs, where everything went horribly wrong.
But now Jorginho was behind the ball and things went wrong again. He pushed the ball into Stole Dimitrievski’s hands after his signature dive to force the goalkeeper to make a decision.
Flavors of Chiesa
The grumblings about that miss were quickly extinguished when Chiesa sent the ball hard into the corner following a clever comeback from Barletta. Making the score 2-0, Chiesa increased the score to 3-0 with the help of a little luck before the halftime.
The ball went in a wide arc over Manev’s foot and crashed into the far corner.
Despite force majeure, Italy allowed their opponents to return to the game after the break. Jani Atanasev suddenly led the visiting team to 3-1 at the first opportunity, and a few minutes later he made the score 3-2 for North Macedonia with a slide.
Meanwhile, Italy had missed some great opportunities, each one greater than the last. There was a danger of a new fiasco, but in the final stage Italy achieved a big victory: 5-2, thanks to Giacomo Raspadori and substitute Stephan El Shaarawy.
England beat Malta
England, already confident of winning the group, made things easier against Malta at Wembley Stadium. The score was 2-0 thanks to an early own goal from Maltese Enrico Pepe and a late strike from Harry Kane.
Source: NOS
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
