The start gives confidence, Kean’s goal, then fear takes over: Bastoni is the cover culprit, but it’s the national team that hasn’t played as an adult. This is how the final disaster came about
An endless nightmare. A curse. An apocalypse. We are out of the World Cup once again, the third in a row, and it is the most terrible one because eleven minutes from America we got hurt, closing ourselves in the area and letting Dzeko strike and Tabakovic pass Donnarumma. A 1-1 which led to extra time and penalties where we collapsed. Bosnia, normal but proud, enters history again, like us for opposite reasons. Now we can say everything: the final away from home, Bastoni’s expulsion which has no justification and forces us to play with ten men for eighty minutes, including extra time. And then the penalties: them from the computers, four out of four, us who score only with Tonali, while Esposito shoots the first into the wind and Cristante hits the crossbar with the third. But penalties are a coincidence up to a certain point. We didn’t compete in the World Cup. We’re not big anymore. And to think that we were ahead with Kean’s beautiful goal after a quarter of an hour, and that with ten of us, despite being subjected to their maneuver, we had more chances. But we weren’t superior in our heads, we didn’t play like Italy: we were scared, even with all the extenuating circumstances of having one man less. Now a key chapter opens. From today something will happen, it must happen, for the good of our football.
