Once again, the “Squadra Azzurra” is threatened with a dangerous journey into the World Cup playoffs, which recently became a nightmare twice. Two former national players sounded the alarm in an interview with Sportschau.
When the Italian national team plays its penultimate World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Moldova in Chisinau on Thursday at 8:45 p.m., its fate will likely be all but sealed. Norway will have already played their home game against Estonia (Thursday, 6:00 p.m.) and will have paved the way to winning the group with the three points they have planned.
Three points and 16 goals currently separate Italy from Erling Haaland’s team – too big a burden for the “Azzurri” to be able to overtake their Nordic rivals in a direct duel three days later. As a result, Italy will most likely have to take the detour via the playoffs as second in the group. Giuseppe Bergomi also knows that there will hardly be a miracle anymore.
Italy’s trauma: first Sweden, then North Macedonia
“We got ourselves into this situation because we lost the game we definitely shouldn’t have lost – in Norway“, regrets the 1982 world champion. The 3-0 defeat in Oslo at the beginning of June, at the time under coach Luciano Spalletti, who has since been fired, still haunts the team to this day.
Has completed 81 international matches for Italy: Giuseppe Bergomi
“Our qualification group is actually quite easy and our aim should be to win all the games“, says Bergomi, as a “Sky” expert still one of the most famous faces on Italian TV: “But since goal difference counts, it will be difficult for us because traditionally Italy have never been a team that scores a lot of goals.“With his 35 goals, scored between 1965 and 1974, Gigi Riva is still Italy’s record goalscorer.”To date, no one has surpassed him,” complains the former Inter star: “That says a lot.“
Not least because of this goal drought, trauma has now set in on the once proud football nation after losing the last two World Cup tournaments in the playoffs: against Sweden in 2018 and against North Macedonia in 2022. The Tifosi have gotten used to discussing arithmetic games instead of big dreams in November. And with the playoffs on the horizon, the fear that has become an annoying familiar is creeping back up.
The shoe pinches, especially in a storm
“We find ourselves in an unprecedented situation“, says Aldo Serena, who was a striker for Italy between 1984 and 1990: “After missing two tournaments, there is now a threat of a third World Cup exit in a row.“Almost an entire football generation has come and gone without the anthem of the “Fratelli d’Italia” (Brothers of Italy) being played at a World Cup. What was once unthinkable, a tournament without Italy, has become a frightening normality.
The mood in the country is contradictory and fluctuates between pride in the 2021 European Championship triumph, this short summer of happiness, and shame about what came before and after. In the bars from Milan to Palermo, people talk less about opponents than about identity: what else is the “Squadra Azzurra” if it is always just a spectator at the biggest tournament?
The quality is there, at least in fragments. Keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma embodies international class. Defender Riccardo Calafiori has developed splendidly at Arsenal and the midfield with Nicolò Barella and Marco Tonali is also impressive. But in the storm, naturalized Mateo Retegui, who now earns his money in Saudi Arabia, all too often has to play the solo entertainer – which brings us back to the biggest dilemma.
Scored five goals so far in World Cup qualifying: Mateo Retegui
Bergomi: Fear will return
“We have quality in midfield, solid approaches in defense, but in attack we are still looking for a leader, a real reference point“Serena regrets:”At least we have the basis to move forward again.” However, the 65-year-old’s words do not convey more than a vague hope, because new coach Gennaro Gattuso’s team is stuck in an endless loop: a country with an endless football culture, but no clear path.
The game system fluctuates between modernity and tradition, between possession of the ball and pragmatism. The young talent shows talent, but the courage to trust them is often lacking. After all, Gattuso is good at it,”to give every player the feeling of being important and to expand the circle of national players“, says Bergomi: “But after the draw for the playoffs (November 20th, editor’s note) this fear will come into play again. Even if you are stronger on paper, it sometimes prevents you from playing freely.“
Caught in the splendor of the past?
Liberated, like in those days of the German summer fairy tale, when Italy became world champions for the last time. Somewhere in Coverciano, the national team’s training center, there are still photos from 2006, when Fabio Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo and the other national heroes made themselves immortal.
Maybe that’s exactly the problem: the myth is too big for today’s football generation, every new attempt becomes a comparison with the golden past. In the end, we’re left with a country that loves football too much to give up. Italy will go to a World Cup again. Sometime. Until then, November will remain a month of arithmetic games, always with fear on the back of your mind.