The illusion that Norway, the leader of this group, could be crushed by Estonia’s heroic resistance in Oslo lasted only a short, very short time, just longer than before. And in fact, when the participation of Haaland and friends in the next World Cup since 1998 becomes official, now is the time to focus on the second illusion fostered this time by Rino Gattuso and his staff, who believe that by fielding a national team with super offensive appeal, it will be easier to seal success against Moldova, which until last night had always lost in domestic matches (so far they have only won one point in Tallinn). Football reality has finally dismantled this outlandish theory, which has often been pursued and claimed by fans and instead reported as false by other professionals. The number of goals to be scored does not directly depend on the number of strikers fielded (Scamacca plus his tried and tested partner Raspadori accompanied by two wingers Zaccagni and Orsolini and pushed forward by two defensive bank keepers, Bellanova and Cambiaso who are not classic defenders).
In Italy’s case last night, it was simply too much. The development of the game, in fact, immediately hit the horizontal jungle of the red shirt players guarding the goal and because they filled the area of other players with blue shirts there was even a possibility that the best chance in the first half fell to the defender (Mancini) first, but was able to block the deflection in front of the unguarded goal. There is much more to note. And this involves some performance that does not match expectations. Fraudulent type.
The arrival of a replacement attacking pair (Retegui and Pio Esposito) helped Politano resolve an embarrassing deficit thanks to the work of a defender, Mancini,
already playing checkers with Israel and on Pio Esposito’s spikes ridden by the right Politano. The final question is this: after taking into account FIFA’s ridiculous selection criteria, are we really sure we will win the World Cup?
