Italy will miss the World Cup for the second straight time after being handed a stunning home loss by North Macedonia, 1-0, during a playoff semifinal Thursday.
In stoppage time, North Macedonia’s Aleksandar Trajkovski drilled an expertly placed shot from outside the penalty area into the lower left corner. Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma dived for the ball but was too slow in his initial reaction, and the strike set off jubilation among the visiting fans in the Sicilian city of Palermo.
North Macedonia, which gained independence amid the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, has a population of just over 2 million, considerably less than Rome alone.