A qualification thrown away. Italy does not go beyond 0-0 against Northern Ireland , while Switzerland scores 4 goals against Bulgaria and detaches the ticket for Qatar.
For the national team a new fear to be driven out, that of the playoffs in March. Great bitterness for the coach Roberto Mancini: "I am sorry because it was a group that we had already closed, we had to be in the World Cup for two games already, or at the latest on Friday ... But instead we have complicated it ourselves".
"It is a moment in which we struggle to find the goal even if we always have the ball in hand - recognizes the coach -. In the first half we could unlock it and this would then have allowed us to play more relaxed, but we didn't succeed. . They were all behind and it was not easy to find free spaces. Too bad, but the group had to be closed earlier. "
"If I think we had two penalties against Switzerland and we missed them ...", was the coach's regret, but there is room for hope: "I think we will go to the World Cup: I repeat, we should already have been there. . But if you have opportunities and you don't take advantage of them ... We have been in football for too long not to know that these difficult moments are happening. "
In March, the playoffs "will be more complicated" than the simple play-off, but with an advantage, Mancini says he is convinced: "Tonight we found a team, Northern Ireland, who played 10 in front of the defense: in March it will be different, two games, yes, but with direct elimination. And you have to play. " He does not appeal to absences, because the qualified Switzerland had perhaps more than the Azzurri, and reiterates: "I am convinced that this is a great team: the boys just have to find peace of mind, between now and March, to do what they are capable of. In the face of difficulty, we are lucky enough to still have the chance to go to the World Cup: I say we will succeed. " At the microphones of Rai he goes even further: "And maybe we will win it too, who knows ...".
