Mancini: ‘This is the worst moment of my career’
ItalyCoach Roberto Mancini accepts responsibility and refuses to talk about the future, after Italy lost 0-1 to North Macedonia in the semifinals of the 2022 World Cup play-offs on March 24.
“July 2021, I experienced the best joy of my career with the Euro championship. Now I feel the biggest disappointment.” Mancini said after the defeat at Renzo Barbera, Palermo. “This is football. Sometimes unbelievable things happen. It’s hard for me to analyze this game. We weren’t supposed to play in the playoffs, but we did everything to win, and it was tough. What to say now”.
The Italy coach added: “The 2021 Euro Championship is really deserved, because Italy plays great football. But the luck that once accompanied us turned into bad luck, and amazing things kept happening out of September”.
Mancini could not explain Italy’s defeat in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Photo: Lapresse
Yesterday, Italy dominated on the ball 66%, finished 32 times – eight times more than the visitors, including five on target. Team heaven also enjoyed 16 corners, while North Macedonia did not. Even if North Macedonia made a mistake, the hosts could not capitalize on it. On the 30th minute, goalkeeper Dimitrievski crossed straight into Domenico Berardi’s position, but the Italian striker’s shot was too light in front of an empty goal, helping Dimitrievski step back in time to correct a mistake.
North Macedonia had only two shots on target, evenly split in each half. The turning point came in the second minute of injury time, when Aleksandar Trajkovski, a player who played for Palermo from 2015-2019, scored from outside the box. Gianluigi Donnarumma.
“Italy dominated. All we needed was a good closing moment, but it didn’t happen. Tonight conceding a second goal in added time was another unlucky moment. Italy had a lot of other bad luck. Good players, and I feel sorry for them.” added Mancini about the match.
On 14 May 2018, Mancini was appointed head coach of the Italian team, shortly after they lost their place at the 2018 World Cup to Sweden in a play-off match. But he didn’t help Italy avoid this trap, even though he did help the team sublimate with the title Euro 2021 Champion. He said: “What can I say about a game where the whole team shot 40 times? Italy conceded in the last minute, and we don’t understand why. We also don’t understand why things have gone so far. Italy won Euro 2021 and are unbeaten for two years. half a year. I know one thing, Italy has a great team, so it’s not the fault of the players, or the president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) Gabriele Gravina. The one in charge. When a team loses, the first person to take responsibility is always trainer.”
When asked about the possibility of resigning after losing to North Macedonia, the 57-year-old coach replied: “I thank President Gabriele Gravina for his trust. But it’s difficult to talk about my future now it’s been difficult. Italy didn’t deserve to be knocked out of the World Cup. After the defeat, we had to suffer, quietly returning to Coverciano to train to prepare for the match against Turkey.”
On March 29, Italy played a friendly match on the Turkish pitch – the team also lost tickets to take the 2022 World Cup when lost to Portugal 1-3 in the semifinals of the play-offs.
Hong Duy
at Blogtuan.info – Source: vnexpress.net – Read the original article here
