The blatant outsider scored in added time with a long-range shot to win. At the stadium in Palermo, the fans were already prepared for extra time.
“We are broken, devastated”
“It’s hard to explain. We’re disappointed, broken, devastated. Something was missing again. We’ve made mistakes since September and have now paid for them,” said veteran Giorgio Chiellini after the embarrassment. The famous sports magazine Gazzetta dello Sport aptly wrote on its homepage: “Disastro Italia”.
In fact, the elimination is a disaster – even if it was indicated after a weak qualifying round. The “Squadra Azzura” could only win one of the last four qualifying games – with 5:0 against Lithuania. There were also two draws against Switzerland and one each against Bulgaria and Northern Ireland. Not enough for a European champion.
No knockout game since the 2006 World Cup final
One statistic is particularly noteworthy: the last knockout game that Italy played at a World Cup was the 2006 final against France. In 2010 and 2014, the team was eliminated in the preliminary round, and in 2018 they missed the final round. Now also in 2022 in Qatar.
The coming days and weeks will show what this performance means for coach Roberto Mancini, who was celebrated as an EM hero.
Source: dpa/sid/red