Henry BushnellFri, 25 March 2022, 5:40 am
Milan, March 25 (Yahoo news) Italy was a fixture at the men’s World Cup for six decades, qualifying for soccer’s premier tournament without fail and winning its third and fourth titles. It established itself as one of the sport’s giants, culturally and competitively. It built a flourishing domestic league and a feared national team that seemed impervious to colossal failure.
And yet, on Thursday in Palermo, that team failed to qualify for its second consecutive World Cup.
It lost to North Macedonia, a former Yugoslav republic that has never qualified, and until this year never even came close. Aleksandar Trajkovski scored a stoppage-time goal to sink the Italians. His teammates spilled onto the field as an entire nation of 60 million emulated the Italian players, their hands on heads, their psyches stunned.
“We are distraught,” Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini said.
