Italy needed Daniele De Rossi to convert a penalty kick just after the 80-minute mark against Spain on Thursday to scrape together a 1-1 draw in both countries’ second qualifier for Russia 2018.
For most of the contest, Spain out-played the unconvincing Azzurri, who now travel to Skopje to play Macedonia in another qualification match on Sunday.
How the Italians will respond after performing so poorly against the Spanish remains to be seen.
On the surface, Sunday’s clash seems like an easy win for Italy – they’re ranked eighth in Europe by FIFA while Macedonia, who have never even come close to qualifying for a World Cup, sit 48th.
But the Italians are in no positions to take anything for granted. Not when they’re at the start of UEFA’s qualification process for the 2018 World Cup and tied with Spain and behind first place Albania in Group G.
Where Italy finish in the final standings is vital, especially since only each group’s winner earns an automatic World Cup berth. The eight best runners-up will then be forced to play one another in a home-and-away playoff for Europe’s four remaining places in Russia.
Despite the stakes, the Italians have developed a reputation for playing poorly against teams they should seemingly be beating easily.
These concerns have been amplified in recent years, due, in part, to the Azzurri’s lacklustre performances at the last two World Cups.
As defending world champions, the Italians failed to make it out of their group at South Africa 2010. They drew with Paraguay and tournament newcomers New Zealand, and then lost their final match against Slovakia.
Just over two years ago at Brazil 2014, the Azzurri managed to beat England 2-1 in a tough opening match, but crumbled to both Costa Rica and Uruguay in their last two group games.
The losses to Costa Rica and Slovakia, plus the disappointing tie with the All Whites, are three results that rank among the Italians’ worst ever.
The others? Let’s just say they’re sprinkled throughout Italian football history indiscriminately.
Maybe the biggest upset of all-time occurred at the 1966 World Cup, when North Korea managed to beat the Azzurri 1-0, shocking the planet. 36 years later, it was the South Koreans who would get the best of the Italians, knocking them out in the round of 16 of the 2002 World Cup.
Meanwhile, Egypt also defeated the Italians in the group stage of the 2009 Confederations Cup, a result that played a huge part in preventing the Azzurri from advancing to the knockout stage.
It’s possible that some of this is due to the Italian football mentality, which has garnered plenty of critics over the years. Former Napoli coach Rafael Benitez and AC Milan midfielder Keisuke Honda have recently argued that Italians rely too much on defending.
Others seem to think the Italians are too cocky. Take Franco Causio, who helped Italy win the 1982 World Cup and said that his former side need to remain level-headed and avoid over-confidence.
Both criticisms hold water.
The Italians are widely accepted as a world football powerhouse, most notably because they’ve won four World Cups and boast Serie A, one of the top leagues in existence.
This paints an enormous target on the Azzurri. Many of the Italians’ opponents inherit a sort of underdog status, and are likely to be eager for the task of challenging a giant.
The likes of Slovakia, New Zealand, Costa Rica, South Korea, North Korea, and Egypt were up for the game when it came time to play the Azzurri. More importantly, all of these countries defeated Italy by actually playing well – and in many cases, better.
From a tactical perspective, it’s harder to come from behind and win when strategy is based largely on defence. Meanwhile, seeing a seemingly lesser opponent rise up and compete for a result can be so unexpected that it’s mentally devastating.
But in spite of these vices, the Italian national team manages to perform as expected most of the time. While they missed the out on the round of 16 in each of the last two World Cups, they reached the final of Euro 2012 and performed well at Euro 2016, narrowly losing on penalties to defending world champions Germany in the quarterfinals.
That doesn’t mean all of the Azzurri’s results in this century have been satisfactory.
But it does suggest that Italy aren’t as bad as their worst loss.
By Julian Cardillo (@JulianCardillo)
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com