From the smiles of Wembley to the penalty missed by Jorginho: with Switzerland it ends 0-0. Next match Wednesday against Lithuania
SENT TO BASEL
The spell does not break, but a small portion of blue magic is gone. Italy comes one step away from returning to the breakaway in the group towards Qatar and does not do so because there is rigor and rigor: at Wembley from eleven meters we climbed to the top of Europe, in Basel we wasted the opportunity to put the seal in the path of qualification for the World Cup and, now, if Switzerland does not lose even a point between Northern Ireland (twice) and Lithuania, we will be forced to beat them at the Olimpico in mid-November to return first.
At Wembley, in the final, our conductor Jorginho got it wrong, but the English did worse: Jorginho spent the summer deserving the nomination for the Golden Ball, yesterday, the ball got in the way and, so , the whole game. The Azzurri coach Mancini was angry first with Immobile, then with the rest of the company for a lack of clarity in the last meters that is condemning us to suffer: thirty-six became the unbeaten races like Brazil in the brackets ’93 / ’96 and , if everything goes as logic says, on Wednesday in Reggio Emilia the unbeaten record series will be ours, but we are approaching the new appointment with some doubts and some perplexities.
Switzerland played “wounded” by a long series of defections: Xhaka, Shaqiri, Freuler, Embolo and Mbabu the heaviest because they are starters or potential protagonists. But the European Championship gave Switzerland a license of credibility which translates into the field: Yakin’s boys have no fear in front of the European champions and allow themselves to be lightly ball-and-chain not typical of the expression of Swiss football.
The pace is up to them, the hosts. And we adapt with a little difficulty: the Azzurri just have to take advantage of the tactical ingenuity of the opponents and, thus, it happens. Locatelli returns the favor received from his friend Berardi on the night of the Olimpico in mid-June and invites the Sassuolo winger to score with the sweetest of verticalizations: this is what Mancini asks, but the end is upside down because Berardi hits the silhouette by Sommer nullifying a solo of thirty meters. Italy opens a small window of missed opportunities and the first part of the duel inside an adrenaline-pumping stadium and with the cheering divided in two runs away with the engine of the best in the class in Europe that breaks down and with Switzerland that puts the chills in Donnarumma thanks to a header from Akanji just above the intersection of the goalposts.
The rest of the script sees us throwing away the rigor, but also in physical difficulty because the legs do not turn the same for everyone. Not having lost keeps us in control of our destiny, but the two draws in four days have put on the table the play-off option for Qatar that no one thought of. Mancini was sure to win here in Basel. We went close once again and now the jokers are over even for those who only less than two months ago brought home the cup. –
© breaking latest news