Italy was once again left out of a World Cup. In one of the European playoff matches played in Palermo, North Macedonia defeated it as a visitor 1-0 in Palermo and eliminated it from the next World Cup in Qatar, just as it had happened in Russia 2018. A goal by Traijkovski when the second minute of injury time was played left the 35,000 Italian fans present at the Renzo Barbera stadium wrapped in silence and in parallel, unleashed the crazy celebration of the Macedonian players who next Tuesday will again play as visitors for a World Cup place against Portugal than in Porto, with goals from Otavio, Diogo Jota and Matheus and Cristiano Ronaldo as starters throughout the match, defeated Turkey 3-1.
Italy exercised an exclusive domain of field and ballbut could not break a large defense that, with good skills and great conviction and deployment, closed all the ways. As the match headed for extra time, a shot from outside the box by Trajkovski hit Donnaruma’s right post and postponed the Italian dreams of reaching the World Cup that he won four times (1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006) and that he will now see again from the outside.
In the other games, Wales with two goals from Gareth Bale, beat Austria 2-1 in Cardiff and will define the World Cup classification against the winner of the match between Scotland and Ukraine, postponed by the war with Russia. As long as Sweden, with a goal from Robin Quaison in the second extra time, beat the Czech Republic 1-0 in Solna and will define on Tuesday in Warsaw with Poland, already classified by the exclusion of Russia determined by UEFA.