World Cup Qualifying: Italy and the fear of a horror hat trick

a 9:0. Or 10:1. Or 11:2. That’s what Italy need on Sunday night in Milan against Norway to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Group I ahead of Scandinavia. In other words: impossible, impossible.

Perhaps that’s how the few hundred Italian fans watching in Chisinau on Thursday saw their team snatch a dismal 2-0 win against Moldova with goals in the 88th and 92nd minutes. Norway recently beat the same opponents 11-1, which is why the goal difference cannot be denied. Now Ultra failed to make any serious effort from their squad to at least equalize and loudly expressed their displeasure midway through the second half. This ultimately angered national coach Gennaro Gattuso. According to Commissario Tecnico, the protests he had to listen to were “shameful”: “I didn’t accept it.”

So the mood could be even better in football nation Italy which is preparing to miss its third consecutive World Cup. Only a successful play-off in March will prevent that horror hat trick. This is the round where selection has failed before the last two World Cup tournaments. They didn’t even score against Sweden (in two games) and Macedonia. Both of them are now one of the potential opponents again if two matches must be won against the runners-up of the other group from the qualifiers or the runners-up from the Nations League.

Buffon with a hat trick for the Czech Republic

This time the campaign started in the summer with a 3-0 defeat in Norway, which ended the ill-fated era of national coach Luciano Spalletti, but accurately reflected Italy’s performance over the last decade. The fact that the European Championship title is surprisingly capable of entering decadence in 2021 has long seemed an anomaly. The proud history of the four-time world champion is expressed only in expectations. “Norway should be able to beat Italy 3-0 in ice hockey, but not in football,” complained Gian Piero Gasperini, AS Roma coach. But right now Norway, who last qualified for a major tournament in 2000, also looks too big.

The reality is that Gattuso didn’t even try to create a miracle in Milan by winning in Chisinau. Coaches prefer to use current games for rotation and play-off preparation. Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali, one of the few top players at the moment, will miss the match against Norway as he risks suspension. Federico Chiesa, potentially Italy’s only star striker, is still absent; After a long break due to injury, the Liverpool striker has rejected calls several times recently.

There aren’t that many, although there are occasional reports of promising talent. A certain Buffon, for example, scored three goals in this week’s U19 European Cup qualifiers. Louis Buffon, 17, son of goalkeeping legend Gianluigi Buffon, current manager of the Italian team. However, he is also the son of Czech model Alena Seredova. And that’s the bad news: Louis Buffon scored his hat-trick for the Czech Republic.

So two late goals in Moldova were enough. “Hello,” Gattuso praised his team in Chisinau and tried out a common adage that applies in Italy: “There are no easy games.”

However, there were 48 World Cup participants for the first time, which made the non-qualification even more embarrassing. 16 teams from Europe will travel to this tournament compared to 13 teams previously. Not enough, said Gattuso, who reckons Italy’s registration file is already quite full – after two successes against the world number 78. Israel, including a wild 5:4 with a winning goal in stoppage time, Estonia 130th and Moldova 156th. Before the match there, Gattuso complained that six of the ten South American teams had qualified directly and that the seventh team had been allowed to play the play-offs. “The criteria definitely need to be revised.” After the final whistle blew in Chisinau, he took aim at the African team: “In 1990 and 1994 there were two teams there, now there are eight.”

Ungrateful fans, bad fashion

Yes, the good old days. Gattuso, the 2006 world champion, also comes from there. That’s why he naturally knows the secret to the success of Italian classics; he mentioned it when he introduced her: “family”. This sense of togetherness was “the most important thing, more important than tactics and formations,” and he has continued to work on it ever since.

External enemies are useful. Ungrateful fans, bad mods: such things bring families closer together, as happened in 2006, when the Italian coach’s home was in Duisburg and the Calciopoli scandal and cliche pamphlets in the German media led the Azzurri to challenge the world champions.

Faith moves mountains – no one personifies this myth like Gattuso, who made things possible where there seemed to be none. “The only talent I was born with was never giving up,” he said of his playing days, adding with charming irony: “Sometimes I look down at my feet and say to them: ‘Damn, give me joy!’”

Is there a better metaphor for the current generation, which lacks talent, and whose only world-class players are goalkeepers? Gianluigi Donnarumma is firmly committed to the Gattuso cult. “You feel Gattuso in your body, as if he is behind you in every moment of the match,” explained the captain. This would also make it possible to exorcise the ghosts of previous play-offs. “It won’t happen a third time, it can’t happen,” said the Manchester City goalkeeper: “This Nationale will qualify for the World Cup.”

The fact that, in addition to Gattuso’s struggles in midfield, there is also the art of Andrea Pirlo and Francesco Totti, is best ignored in plans for back-to-the-future travel. Also that he is only the second choice coach. Initially, redemption was supposed to go to a certified football miracle worker in Claudio Ranieri; He once coached provincial club Leicester City to the English title, and most recently, as a reinstated retiree, he led AS Roma out of the relegation battle and into the European business. But the 74-year-old preferred to refer to an agreed consultant job at the Roma club rather than risk damaging his reputation and peace of mind with a tragedy in the national team.

Ten clubs in twelve years

Only the fearless Gattuso doesn’t shy away from any job: It’s a pattern of an erratic coaching career that began at scandalous Swiss club Sion, where he was promoted to player-coach during the season, only to be sacked from both positions moments later. Since then he almost never missed a suicide mission.

In Crete and Pisa the players could not be paid, Gattuso helped personally, he never gave up hope, nor did he lack loyalty to his humble roots as the son of a carpenter from Calabria. The passionate chaos clubs Palermo, Valencia and Marseille couldn’t even be tamed by him; he only achieved something like continuity with spells of a year and a half each at his former playing club AC Milan and in Naples. Most recently he coached Hajduk Split. In total, coach Gattuso has worked for ten clubs in twelve years, including Florence. The separation occurred there before the first match.

However, a worrying sign for Italy is Gattuso’s tendency to fail to hit the target, even with good approaches. In Milan and Napoli each one point away from qualifying for the Champions League, in Split the championship was lost at home. However, coach Gattuso does not have the winning myth that Donnarumma has, which is crucial to combat panic ahead of the play-offs. And it’s better not to remember the sad end of his playing career in the national team. Coach Marcello Lippi took him again to the 2010 World Cup because he had a good influence on every team. However, defending champion Italy failed in the group, partly because they drew 1-1 against New Zealand.

After all, Italy is there. If he could do it again, Gennaro Gattuso would definitely be able to achieve many achievements.