To an extent, Italy was unlucky. It had 32 to shots to four. Most nights, what it did would have been enough to beat North Macedonia. But it didn’t. It lost to Aleksandar Trajkovski’s injury-time goal and so, for the second World Cup in a row, Italy has failed to qualify. But to speak merely of misfortune is slightly to miss the point. Misfortune can happen in a one-off game; the point is that Italy became vulnerable to that kind of bad luck by failing to win its group and having to take part in the playoff.
Failure to Qualify for World Cup Better Represents Italy Than Euro Triumph
