Football is so outrageous sometimes. When the draw results of the European play-offs of the World Cup qualifiers were announced, everyone exclaimed that Italy and Portugal were in the same group, and there was bound to be a team between the two that could not appear in Qatar. But what everyone would never expect is that a team will fall in the semifinals before the two meet. What is even more outrageous is that the Italian team’s exit is full of so many “metaphysical” colors.
After the Italian team was out, in addition to the new European Cup champion missed the World Cup, the most discussed is Jorginho’s two penalty kicks in the two rounds of the group match against the Swiss team.
In the first leg last September, Italy drew 0-0 away from Switzerland. In the 53rd minute of the game, Ricardo Rodriguez tackled Berardi in the penalty area, and the referee awarded a penalty kick. But Jorginho’s shot was weak and was easily hugged by the opponent’s goalkeeper Sommer.
At that time, although the Italian team suffered two consecutive draws, the results of 3 wins and 2 draws still allowed the Azzurri to lead the standings. However, in the penultimate round in November last year, although the Italian team drew 1-1 with the Swiss team again, the Azzurri could only beat their opponents with the advantage of goal difference and ranked first. As a result, in the final round, the Italian team continued its sluggish performance. After a 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland, it was overtaken by the Swiss team and could only participate in the current play-offs.
In the second round against Switzerland, the Italian team still missed a penalty, still Jorginho, and the missed penalty was even more “dead” because it was enough to kill the game of a penalty. In the 90th minute of the game, Berardi also made the point, and Jorginho also took the penalty, but this time, the latter shot the ball directly out of the anti-aircraft gun and missed the opportunity to kill the opponent.
After being eliminated from the World Qualifiers, Jorginho, the party who missed the penalty, and the Italian coach Mancini will inevitably talk about it.
Jorginho said that he will remember the missed two penalty kicks for the rest of his life: “We have to face the reality, but I do have a responsibility. It is still sad to look back on it now, I think I will remember it for the rest of my life. I missed the penalty. Two penalties, not helping my team and my country, it makes me feel heavy.”
And Mancini’s speech was more like a vent, “Tonight’s loss is the price we paid before. Those two penalty kicks only need to score one, and we are enough to advance. The opponent was lore in the 90th minute. It’s ridiculous, but it’s the reality. It’s cruel and I feel sorry for the players.”
Against fish belly but encountered a “system bureau”
In all kinds of games, we often use “system game” to explain the situation where you have the advantage of crushing level, but you can’t win no matter what. Today, the Italian team is precisely in such a situation.
If we look back at the statistics of this game, we can clearly see how much advantage the Italian team has. According to the statistics of UEFA’s official website, Italy has a huge advantage in this game, with a ball possession ratio of 64%-36%, a shooting ratio of 32-4, a shooting ratio of 5-2, and the number of attacks being 67-15. Corner kicks were 16-0.
Looking at passing and receiving, the attempted pass is 571-302, the successful pass is 488-235, and the pass success rate is 85%-78%. In terms of the number of saves made by the goalkeeper, Donnarumma, who has almost nothing to do, only made one save, while the opponent’s goalkeeper made five saves, including the empty goal that saved Berardi. The North Macedonia team had a total of 16 blocked shots, while the Italian team had 0…
I don’t know why it is so coincidental, the focus of the Italian team’s exit is always on those few people. This time, Berardi, who made some contributions to the Swiss team in both rounds, became the sinner.
In the 29th minute of the game, the North Macedonia goalkeeper made a mistake in kick-off and passed the ball directly to Berardi in front of the penalty area. However, the latter did not choose to shoot at the first time when he got the ball because he was too stable, but chose to stop first, which gave the opponent goalkeeper time to return to defense. When shooting, Berardi’s left foot was weak and weak. Although the angle was tricky, such a “return” shot obviously failed to score, and the opponent’s goalkeeper pressed the ball under him.
Shots are crushed, ball possession is crushed, and there is even a chance to score a goal, but the score is 0-1. Does it look like a “system game” in the game? Next time we want to scold “this game is too fake!”, let’s think of the Italian team today.
In fact, even the Italian generals couldn’t explain why. Jorginho said: “It’s hard to explain, it’s hard to find an answer, it’s so painful. It’s a huge regret, I still can’t believe it. We created a lot of chances and dominated the game, But not winning, that’s the reality. It’s not anyone’s fault, we played great football, we won the European Cup, but in recent games we made small mistakes that led to different results .”
Mancini said: “In July last year, we won the European Cup, which was the best time of my career. It was probably a success that should not have been, because we played very well. Now, that kind of good Luck turned into bad luck and that’s my biggest disappointment. That’s football, that’s how certain games are. Everything we do is to win, but when you lose, you’re out, you have to Know how to digest that. This game, we dominated and lost, and that’s it.”
Verratti said: “It’s hard for me to understand now, it’s a huge disappointment. We’re dominant, we deserve to win, we have a huge advantage, it’s impossible not to win. conceded a minute before the end of the game is the biggest nightmare, we could have done better, that’s football. With our squad, we had everything we needed to get to the World Cup, and now we’ve gone from star to rag. My greatest happiness came last summer, I’ll never Proud of my teammates. Everyone tried their best, but it wasn’t enough tonight.”
Portugal needs to be more vigilant
After defeating the Italian team, North Macedonia once again entered people’s field of vision. The last time North Macedonia took the limelight was in the preliminaries, but in the group stage, they beat another giant team Germany 2-1 away. Germany and Italy have won 8 World Cup titles in total, but they have all lost to North Macedonia.
I believe that when the draw results come out, no one will believe that North Macedonia will reach the play-off final. But now, even Portugal can no longer underestimate this belly team.
After the defeat of Turkey, Portugal coach Santos has sounded the alarm for the team, “I always said, we have to be ready to play against Italy or North Macedonia. Now that we have won the semi-finals, we have to focus on winning the third. Two games, which is also our ultimate goal. Now we have to focus on North Macedonia, we cannot relax. It will definitely be very difficult against North Macedonia, they beat Italy, which means it will not be an easy game against them .”
At 2:45 a.m. on March 30th, Beijing time, North Macedonia is going to challenge Portugal on the road. Can they create a miracle again? You will find out in a few days.
(Editor: King of the South of Bavaria)Return to Sohu, see more