yes exactly you should have to drop out of your spot top group A spot go into the "qualifying" what's the point of being a top 15 ranked club and beating Belgium and France if you then have to be perfect in an 8 game group with Norway and then win two single eliminations against who knows who.
FML. Just when I was trying to be more positive they dunk 11 on Moldova. Still have 2 cracks for Norway to drop points.
yeah anythings possible they choked in 2024 qualifying in their games with Scotland. Israel are just good enough to shock them. never know but Im psychologically prepared for the playoff I just want to see us play like we din't care what path we have.
Ridiculous. 11-1? Have the Moldovan no pride? Oh well, we just have to keep taking care of business and let the chips fall where they may.
I never hoped about goal difference. I said that many times. Unfortunately we couldn’t avoid the defeat against Norway in the first match. We all knew what this meant. 99% playoffs. There is still a slim chance of them dropping points against Israel or even Estonia. Personally I don’t see this either. But this scenario always had more chances than getting the goal difference. Right now is fundamental building our chemistry and confidence. Let’s be the team that everyone wants to avoid in playoffs if we have to cross this path again. If I have to bet, I would say we will qualify through playoffs this time!
https://football-italia.net/world-cup-playoffs-rules-venue-italy-opponents/ good article explaining possible opponents. the good news is these should be winnable games if we are scoring like we have been. “Wednesday, Italy are likely to be in Pot 1, which means that the possible opponents in the semifinals are currently Sweden, Northern Ireland, Moldova, and San Marino. Obviously, it is way more unpredictable to know the possible opponents in the potential final, but currently, Slovakia, Armenia, Scotland, Greece, Iceland, Georgia, Turkey, North Macedonia, Wales, Serbia and the Czech Republic seem to be the better-placed.“
Was thinking about this yesterday. Would prefer to avoid Greece then they lost 0-3 against Denmark. Slovakia, another team to avoid (could have eliminated England at the last Euro, defeated Germany). Serbia to avoid as there are too many of their players in calcio. Balkan teams always have wood facing Italy. It will be Sweden and North Macedonia. A chance to right the wrong from the last 2 WC Qualifying cycles. A golden opportunity for these fools to *WANT* set things right. But are they too mentally fragile?
At this stage, we seriously risk missing out on our third straight World Cup as I wouldn't take it for granted that we qualify via the Playoff route. I'm 44, so I grew up watching Italy be among the top five football nations in the world perenially essentially from as long as I can remember to 2006. Had you asked me during that period if we would miss any World Cups, I would have thought it inconceivable, let alone three in succession. I don't understand how Gravina, who's been in charge since 2018, has a job. Can someone please explain this?
Gravina is just a puppet. He's useless. I'm not sure anyone in that position would help much. The ROT runs deep in our system -- from youth to club -- it's terrible. We do a terrible job of identifying and developing talent and then our club teams just buy cheap foreigners hoping to hit big on an investment. Gli Azzurri are the last thing on their mind and frankly our fans are too weak to ever push back. They just care about club.
I agree with a lot of that but it seems so odd to not make any changes given the sad state of affairs.
I think if we miss a third world cup we will have to take radical steps but 2017 being in a group with Spain and going out to an unlucky goal probably made them think well that was bad luck then we bring in Mancini and respond by winning our first Euro since 1968 and then dont qualify again. Euro 2024 qualifying was tricky but we managed. When we isolate the world cup failures it looks absurb but since 2006 we had an ok 2008 a great 2012 a very strong 2016 and a generational 2020/21. If you told me in 2006 we wouldnt have much success in world cups but get to two euro finals and win one over the next 20 years I wouldnt think that was so bad. I think what has happened is simply that are quality dropped enough where we are no longer a shoe in to win our qualifying groups and whether it is the pressure or what ever it is we have struggled facing a playoff situation that is actually not that uncommon for a lot of nations to face. We have to learn how to navigate this new reality. The quality of smaller nations across Europe has risen dramatically while ours has dipped slightly. Something needs to be done to avoid a true collapse but it sounds way worse than it is when we isolate world cup qualifying in 2017 and 2022. I think its a mini curse that we have to psychologically break. My biggest worry with this generation is they lack the dark arts and grinta that has always served us. Now is the time to find it.
I don't disagree but aren't there 16 teams in League A? There would be nothing for League B,C so I don't think they would go for it. England would be out. Crazy that Moldova would be one the 4 group winners added to the playoffs, they clearly don't deserve it.
Theres not much incentive to do well in the nations league other than improve your fifa ranking. Its better to bow out early and focus on world cup qualifiers.
I hear you, I'm 38 and have to pinch myself to realize it's extremely likely I won't see Italia in the world cup since age 26. Insane. And I still remember losing to Uruguay, just the worst feeling in the world, sick to my stomach, telling my friends "The boys in blue will be back. we always come back to fight." WRONG. Well except Euro 2021 which I hold very dear to my heart. That tournament was special even when surrounded by the madness of the world cup failures. Plus it was the last tournament I watched with my father before he passed on
Bingo. its a meaningless friendly tournament they created to give Ronaldo trophies since he can't win the big one.
Even Sor Carletto is having problems! Shock in La Paz! Bolivia (€13M squad value) defeated Brazil (€735M) to keep their World Cup hopes alive. One of the biggest upsets of the qualifiers!
meaningless game for Brazil they have already qualified. However, this brings Brazil to 6 losses in this single qualifying campaign. Meanwhile I'm not even sure if i've been alive for 6 Italy world cup qualifying losses in total and we've missed 2 and maybe our 3rd consecutive world cup. #BrokenSystem.
LOL even in the legit final he was in he fell down and cried his way off while his teammates dug deep to win it without him
Well. A day before the Estonia match, IIRC it was Frattesi who said that Gattuso was trying to bring back the cattiveria. I've always maintained that it eliminated from this generation in Europe because Millenial and GenZ players grew up with YouTube and social media where shithousery, and this cattiveria is now easily exposed. Say nothing of VAR.
Yes exactly. Chiellini and Bonnucci and to a degree Verratti made sure we still had that in 2021 but the players since then are too honest. I believe when Prandelli came in during the 2011-2012 period when Spain was dominating he and others really pushed a possession approach to the game and now we are seeing the fruits of that project play out where we have a half dozen centre backs that can play the ball unlike any others and a bunch of midfielders that want to dictate play with their passing. The problem then becomes that you combine that with more and more foreigners and Italian players become almost solely the speciality players on their squads and then when you put them all together there is no one to really connect the pieces. Tonali helps greatly as Euro 2024 exposed that without him it truly is flakey but there are not many others like him. England have a similar issue where they tried to begin developing more technical players and now they have 7 or 8 guys that want to play as a number 10 and few pure strikers box to box or deep midfielders to speak of and again most are the specialty player on the team they play for. When you had a Milan Juventus block there were always role players that just fit together Gatusso Pirlo Canavaro Zambrotta Camronesi etc that did a lot of the work even Totti De Rossi Perotta it is less about the talent level than the tactical versatility. Post Euro 2021 we needed to simply pick a manager that could copy Inzaghi ball as that was the only Italian block going. It should have been fairly simple to play Acerbi Bastoni Darmian Barella Di Marco together with two pure strikers up top. But the federation wanted to continue with the Mancini project and picked Spalletti to go with possession and beautiful midfield play. We should right now be slowly transitioning out of the Inter block into something new but instead we completely missed that window and now its both too late to go back to it and an unknown what to go to next.
yes this is what I would play.. you can throw Politano in for Cambiaso and it is still essentially the lopsided 442/433 that Gatusso played but with Calafiori on the left and Scalvini on the right and Buongiorno in the centre it should give us a much stronger base defensively.
Gazetta Dello Sport An article by them writing Italy only have a chance for 1st Place in the group heading into the final match ONLY if Israel get something out of their match versus Norway. Either this is shotty journalism or I have it wrong. Wouldn't an Estonian Draw or Win be just as good? It's almost as if they completely overlooked Estonia or have no faith in them so no use mentioning it.
Do really think Estonia is going to get anything out of Norway in the return match? It’s most likely going to be another 5,6-0 result for the Norwegians
It was only 0-1 back in June. I don't, no, but GDS should make factually correct statements given their profession.