Unbelievable but true. The Italian national team will not be present at this year's World Cup, which will be held in Qatar. For the second time in a row, Squadra Azzurra failed to qualify for the top sporting event of the year.

Roberto Mancini's team was defeated 0-1 in Palermo by its counterpart in Northern Macedonia and said goodbye to the World Cup. Unthinkable accident for Italy, the European champion 2021.!

Northern Macedonia, thanks to a goal by Trajkovski in 90 + 2 ', threw the host, "Squadra Azzura", out of the final phase.

Roberto Mancini's team, which won the Euro a few months ago, was defeated at home by Northern Macedonia and the experienced coach together with his footballers will watch the World Cup on TV!

Instead, Blagoja Milevski's team dropped a bomb on world football and advanced to the play-offs, where they will face Portugal, who beat Turkey 3-1.

The dream of participating in the final phase of the World Cup remains alive for Northern Macedonia that goes to Portugal (29/3) to achieve another miracle against the company of Cristiano Ronaldo. This will be the second series of the World Cup that we will not see the Italians, since they had not even qualified for the 2018 equivalent, which took place in Russia.

Italy must be defeated at home for the first time in the history of the World Cup qualifiers in 59 games. In these games he counted 48 wins and 11 draws. While it is the 4th time that a European champion stays out of the World Cup. The beginning took place in the 1978 tournament with Czechoslovakia, followed by Denmark in the US tournament in 1994 and of course Greece since 2006.

"Thus another black page was written about Italy, this time in" Renzo Barbera "of Palermo, with the perpetrator being Northern Macedonia.

The fight naturally was an aggressive monologue of the Italians. Driven by Berardi, the "blue team" created phases in front of the opposing frames, but could not transform them into something more. In the 30th minute, the Sassuolo striker lost the biggest opportunity of the match with a weak place from an advantageous position, while in the 58th place he attempted, he went a little out of focus.

Therefore, the last knockout match of Italy in the top football organization until at least the summer of 2026 will remain the ... winning final of 2006 against France!

Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Marco Verratti could not believe how Italy lost at home and burst into tears after the end of the match.

For his part, the federal coach, Roberto Mancini, was obviously disappointed and upset:

"After the Euro which was the most wonderful experience of my life, this was the biggest disappointment. We cannot say anything, this is football, sometimes incredible things happen. We should not be here from the first moment. always to win and it's hard even to talk about it.

We deserved to win the Euro, we played amazing football. Some of the luck we had in the tournament turned into bad luck, as incredible things happened from September. We were dominant in the group, all we needed was a moment to go well, but it did not happen. "I feel sorry for the footballers," he said.

When asked about the future, he left everything open: "We will see. I think everyone is extremely disappointed to talk about the future."

"Finally, the president of the Italian federation, Gravina, clarified his position: I will remain at the helm of the FIGC and I hope that Mancini will do the same," he stressed.