Bulgaria pushed hard until the final whistle and went close with the last touch of the game but Yordan Minev missed the target with a close-range header. The skipper made another diving save to keep out Dimitar Rangelov's header while Medelev's low shot from inside the penalty box flashed just wide of the right post.Ī mix up between Mihaylov and Nikolay Bodurov almost led to Gilardino's second but the defender made amends to slide in and block the striker's shot. That did not compare with Buffon's heroics after the break as he produced an improbable stop to deny Ivelin Popov from point-blank range. The hosts posed more danger from the same flank soon after but Mihayloy managed to palm away Luca Antonelli's shot. Lorenzo Insigne did the same for Nikolay Mihaylov at the other end but the Bulgaria goalkeeper could do nothing when Gilardino headed in from close range in the 38th minute. What are we going to say? “Man, I wish Ciro Immobile finished that one chance that was cleared off the line!”? No, not today.Missing the suspended Riccardo Montolivo, Pablo Osvaldo and Mario Balotelli and with Claudio Marchisio and Andrea Barzagli absent due to injury, the Azzurri struggled in the early stages with Todor Nedelev and Stanislav Manolev testing Buffon from distance.
Call it arrogance or whatever you want, but Italy should have never been in the playoff round to begin with.īut thanks to Ventura’s failures as a manager and the players unable to answer the call, there will be no World Cup for any of them. Italy should have never been in that position at all. Gigi shouldn’t have spent his final minutes as Italy’s captain and goalkeeper running to the other end of the San Siro field to be part of a corner kick. There will be no send-off for Buffon on the international stage with hundreds of millions of people watching. Now Italy will have the summer off to watch the World Cup from their couches or beaches around Europe. That was too little, and it was too late. There was an ineffective Ciro Immobile on the field for 90 minutes. There was no Insigne, but there was a Leonardo Bonucci who was clearly injured. were well aware of what needed to be done on Monday night, and instead of having somebody like Insigne on the field from the start or adjusting your system right out of the gate in the second half, Ventura did nothing. But this was Italy’s failings more than anything else. “Tip your cap to ‘em!” as they like to say here in American sports. Yes, we can throw credit Sweden’s way because that’s the customary and classy thing to do. To see Italy go from limited yet nearly making the semifinals in the European Championship under Conte to now not making the World Cup, it’s just awful and fully deserving of heads rolling as a result of it. Italy’s roster is going to be younger the next time we see them playing, and they need new blood in the front office to guide them through this obviously huge transition that will happen without Buffon wearing the captain’s armband. Carlo Tavecchio, the man who hired Ventura as Antonio Conte’s replacement, should be following him right out the door. Ventura has already resigned, according to multiple Italian media outlets, and that’s what needs to happen. Same goes for the fact that Italy looked absolutely terrible for more than just a couple of games when they desperately needed points or, you know, goals in the playoff. Same goes for the fact that he let personal biases with Lorenzo Insigne come before the team’s best interest. Ventura said during his pre-match press conference that playing in the qualification playoffs was inventible when he saw that Spain was in Italy’s group, and that kind of mindset came back to bite him in the ass. The sub-par end to the group phase of qualifying only extended itself another two games when Italy needed to actually play some good football. That is, if he wasn’t that guy already, of course. Gian Piero Ventura officially became Public Enemy No. None of that is going to be happening after Italy couldn’t get a win against Sweden on Monday night at San Siro. Según han publicado medios en Italia y en Canadá, Insigne recibirá 8 millones de dólares al año después de impuestos. Gigi Buffon is not going to be setting one final record on the international stage by playing in a sixth World Cup. Lorenzo Insigne Insigne llega al Toronto FC tras 16 años en el Nápoles. Italy is not going to the 2018 World Cup. “Italia, tre giorni per salvare la faccia” The headline on SportMediaset’s website after Italy’s 1-0 loss to Sweden on Friday said it all.
0 kommentar(er)
