Italian
The Italian national football team is eliminated on penalties by Bosnia and for the third consecutive time will not participate in the World Cup
ZENICA (BOSNIA) – I had a title in mind while watching the match: “A terrible Italy still makes it to the World Cup“. I was sure that, one way or another, the Azzurri would manage to qualify this time. A single knockout match can always be lost, especially if played away and in a small fortress with a pitch at the limits of decency.
But the level of the two teams, the monetary value of the players on the field, the ranking (Bosnia was 71st), history, and let’s also add the great law of numbers were all on our side. No World Champion National Team had ever missed three World Cups in a row. It had to be our time.
And instead no. A good first half with the goal from the usual Kean (his sixth consecutive goal, matching Gigi Riva) after 15 minutes. The missed double just a bit later. Chances on both sides but with Donnarumma always alert and a defense that seemed to have returned to its best days.
Then the wrong pass from our goalkeeper, no one to protect him. Bastoni takes down Memic who is on a breakaway and a perfectly justified red card at the 39′. Coach Gattuso takes off Retegui (crucial in recovering the ball for the blue goal) and brings on Gatti. They switch to a 3-5-1 and Italy effectively disappears from the field.
An unwatchable second half. No play, never a pass. It’s a Bosnian siege with the blues barely able to leave their own half. At the start of the second half, the almost debutant Palestra comes on, having played only a few minutes on Thursday against Northern Ireland. A gamble. And it turned out to be the best player on the field.
There were also chances for Kean, Esposito, and Dimarco, but the only true champion that Italy has remains Gigio Donnarumma, who saves the day on more than one occasion. And we relied on him anyway, despite everything, during the penalties.
But even the best goalkeeper in the world can do nothing about the rebound from the newly entered Tabakovic ten minutes before the end. Suddenly, Italy has a jolt but slowly heads to penalties with the mistakes of Esposito and Cristante.
For the third consecutive time, Italy fails to qualify for the World Cup. And it’s not a coincidence; it’s not just a bad game. It’s a frightened team, carried forward only by the goalkeeper’s heroics. And we can’t even blame the refereeing decisions. The issue lies at the core.
So let’s start again with the young, let’s reform the football schools as Roberto Baggio requested in 2010 when he was entrusted with the new project for the reform of Italian football. A monumental work of 900 pages that addressed all aspects of the new generations of footballers based on the model of Spain, France, and Germany.
Coaches trained in a modern way according to pedagogical and technical skills. Not, as too often happens in Italy, placed there for sympathy, past career as a player, or worse, by sponsors.
A project never read by anyone from the Federal Council and left in oblivion. We have lost fifteen years of work, and at the helm of the Figc we still have Gabriele Gravina. A person who, after denigrating other sports as amateur and state-run, unlike football, believes that the most decorated athlete in Italian history, Arianna Fontana, is a skier and not a short track speed skater.
Reiterating that football needs more support from institutions, when in reality it is the sport that receives the most government funding. Yet in all other sports we excel. From tennis to swimming, from athletics to volleyball. Including fencing, skiing, skating, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, martial arts, and now even in baseball.
We have Olympic champions like Thomas Ceccon who train in public pools with elderly ladies doing AquaGym on the side. Or a World Champion like Zaynab Dosso who has to mark the lines herself with chalk and doesn’t have the opportunity to train indoors.
The problem is at the root, we said. But it is especially at the top. Because nothing will ever really change as long as the same people who created this situation remain in charge. In the end, probably only Gennaro Gattuso will pay the price, who put his heart and soul into it, but you can’t draw blood from a wall.
The scorecard
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA-ITALY 5-2 DTR (0-1 first half)
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (4-4-2): Vasilj; Memic (from 25’st Burnic), Muharemovic, Katic, Kolasinac; (from 1’st Alajbegovic); Dedic, Sunjic, (from 1’st Tahirovic), Basic (from 25’st Tabakovic), Bajraktarev; Demirovic (from 10’sts Hadziahmetovic), Dzeko. Bench: Hadzikic, Zlomislic, Mujakic, Celik, Gigovic, Bazdar, Radeljic. Coach: Barbarez.
ITALY (3-5-2): Donnarumma; Mancini, Bastoni, Calafiori; Politano (from 1’st Palestra), Barella (from 40’st Frattesi), Locatelli (from 25’st Cristante), Tonali, Dimarco (from 1’pts Spinazzola), Retegui (from 43’pt Gatti), Kean (from 25’st Esposito). Bench: Carnesecchi, Meret, Cambiaso, Buongiorno, Pisilli, Raspadori. Coach: Gattuso.
Referee: Turpin (France); Assistants: Danos and Pages (France); Fourth official: Sanchez (Spain); VAR: Brisard (France); AVAR: Delajod (France).
Scorers: 15’pt Kean (I), 35’st Tabakovic (B)
Note: Bastoni (I) sent off in the 41st minute. Yellow cards: Tahirovic (B), Donnarumma (I), Muharemovic (B), Katic (B), Frattesi (I), Vasilj (B). Penalty sequence: Tahirovic (B) goal, Esposito (I) over, Tabakovic (B) goal, Tonali (I) goal, Alajbegovic (B) goal, Cristante (I) crossbar, Bajraktarev (B) goal.
