When it was finally over and the lights went out in Belfast’s Windsor Park, Roberto Mancini stepped in front of the media and performed his best number again – the art form of trusting God against all earthly evidence. “We’re going to the World Cup in Qatar,” he said, “but through the playoffs. And maybe we’ll win them then too.” What was meant was the World Cup. A mix of defiance and self-motivation. You have to do it once, only minutes after the greatest disappointment that he has suffered since his appointment Commissario tecnico happened three years ago.
0-0 against Northern Ireland and closer to losing than winning. Not to mention the high victory that would have been necessary the longer the evening went on. Switzerland, who started the group C long-distance duel with equal points and a slightly worse goal difference, scored goal after goal against Bulgaria in Lucerne. 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0. on Rai Uno, the first Italian state broadcaster, the commentators always submitted the Swiss hits three or four minutes late. You probably wanted to protect the fans. “What a nightmare” is the headline now Gazzetta dello Sport.
The European champion has to go to the additional lap to go to Qatar
So the European champion has to go to the playoffs, in Italian: spareggio. At least since 2017, when they failed against Sweden in the barrage for the World Cup in Russia, it has become a trigger word for fear. The Azzurri, at least the Italian newspapers find that they have a seldom harmonious choir, really deserved this risky and somewhat dishonorable additional exam in March.
There was nothing left that this team carried to the roof of Europe in the summer, less than five months ago: this contagious game fun, the unity in the ranks, the world championship collective spirit of a technically mediocre team, this unconditional and somehow un-Italian urge to score , that dose of healthy madness. In every spare minute they sang happy songs. Everything disappeared, all the lightness, fizzled out like a snapshot.
All of Italy’s weaknesses are revealed in Belfast
At Windsor Park, all of this team’s weaknesses were so clearly revealed that they looked like a caricature. Sure, the Northern Irish stood in the back, a row of five in front of the goalkeeper, a row of three right in front of them – tight and massaged at twenty meters, full width of the square. So it was to be expected, and it was exactly like that. But the storm of a big five, as the Italians see themselves, one of the five best national teams in the world, should find a way through the wall. But none was found. A newspaper writes: “It was as if we wanted to go to the Colosseum at rush hour, but got stuck on the Ringstrasse.”
Italy doesn’t have a world-class center forward, and it’s not for a long time. And even when the now injured Ciro Immobile from Lazio was strong, it was often as if the Azzurri were playing without nines. Mancini has already tried thirteen center forwards, none of them convinced him. Now you think about Lorenzo Lucca, who is only 21 years old, 2.01 meters tall and plays for Pisa in Serie B, Italy’s second division.
The midfield also leaves a disoriented, almost powerless impression. Jorginho now apparently lost himself completely after missing three penalties in a row, two of which were decisive against Switzerland. The coach replaced him early, which had never happened before: Jorginho had always been in command, everyone listened to his instructions. Without Marco Verratti, the long-term injured, the Italian game would dramatically fall short of clever ideas.
“Harvard Defense”? Without Chiellini, Bonucci is less than half
The defense? José Mourinho once said that Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, the veteran duo in central defense, are “the Harvard of defense”: the highest school, professors of their roles, meanwhile 114 internationals each. But if one of the two is missing, which is part of the process with advancing age, less than half remains, then the Italian defense is at most a provincial university. Chiellini, 37, was not in the last few games when enormous holes opened up in the back line. The Northern Irish, you have to imagine, had better chances to score than the Italians. In the end, they are disappointed that they couldn’t beat the European champions, just like that, for prestige, and for an even livelier round later in the pub.
Even the goalkeeper of the Italians, Gianluigi Donnarumma, the best player in the European Championship, has a problem that is apparently so great that it eats away at his otherwise rather lavish self-confidence. A few days ago “Gigio” said that the rivalry between PSG and the other number 1 Keylor Navas bothers him a lot.
The man from Costa Rica plays much more often than Donnarumma, which seems to be due in no small part to the fact that he can count on the powerful lobby of the other South Americans in the team: for example Neymar, Leo Messi and Angel Di Maria. Shortly before the end of the game against Northern Ireland, Donnarumma stormed awkwardly from his penalty area to prevent an offensive action by the opponents, under the ball and then stood far from his empty goal. Bonucci cleared on the line.
The failure, it gripped the whole team. on Rai UnoWhere they usually lose their clarity a little because of sheer eulogies and devotion to the Azzurri, it was now said that confidence in their own possibilities had been wiped away. “Body language says it all, they haven’t even tried to win the game in the last few minutes.”
And of course that’s particularly annoying, a bit disrespectful. The great old football coach Arrigo Sacchi puts it this way: “We are exhausted and also a little arrogant.” About the opposite of what they were in the summer. In Italy one even wonders whether this European championship title was perhaps only owed to a particularly good star constellation in the end. A random spell.