Ouch Italy! The match point against Switzerland ends 1-1, which means only one thing: in Belfast's away match against Northern Ireland on Monday, it will not be enough just to win, but also to do it with a better goal difference than our opponents, who are also playing Bulgaria at home.
To date, after yesterday's draw, we maintain the advantage we had on the eve, i.e. a +2 between goals scored and conceded, but it is clear that no one would have wanted to postpone everything to the last day, also by virtue of a calendar that sees us as slightly disadvantaged . Yesterday's equal fault, son of a game that started badly and ended even worse, with a wrong penalty kick (the second after the first leg) from Jorginho, who in the 89th minute kicked the 2-1 ball into the Curva Sud of the Olimpico. It wouldn't have been enough to go to the World Cup, there's no doubt about that, but he would certainly have put a mortgage the size of a house, whereas now everything is seriously in the balance, one way or the other.
“We missed a penalty in the first leg and one in the second leg, but these things happen – he glossed over Mancini -. Right that he kicked Jorginho, he felt like it. If I change the penalty taker? I don't know, he's good at beating them, but I'll talk to him, he has to stay calm and we'll probably change him if he happens again." Throwing the cross at the Chelsea midfielder would be unfair and ungenerous, but it is clear that his mistake cannot go unnoticed, in the light of gravity and, above all, of the moment in which it arrived. In fact, in the 89th minute, with the match now heading towards 1-1, Garcia pushed Berardi into the area and referee Taylor, initially not very interested in what happened, was called back by the Var, thus ending up pointing to the spot: there he appeared Jorginho, who has always been a specialist in the subject, but also returning from two consecutive errors, one with England in the final of the European Championship, the other with Switzerland in the 0-0 first leg.
The Italian-Brazilian, candidate perhaps a little too quickly for the Ballon d'Or, showed all his nervousness, first by changing his way of kicking (remember the slow run-up looking at the goalkeeper? Well, none of that), then sending the ball over Sommer's crossbar. A disaster in short, which could cost us direct qualification for the World Cup, thus sending us back to those already indigestible play-offs in 2018. But, as mentioned at the beginning, reducing yesterday's 1-1 draw to just Jorginho would be ungenerous, because Italy played much worse than it was reasonable to expect, especially in the first half. Ready to go and Yakin's Switzerland, who came to Rome with warlike ambitions, found the advantage with Widmer, good at unloading a powerful and precise shot behind the innocent Donnarumma (11').
There began a run-up match, that By Lorenzo he seemed to have straightened out in the 36th minute by heading Insigne's free-kick. In the second half, however, the Azzurri ended up in the Swiss net, made up of low defense and density, never managing to unravel the skein, except for a couple of occasions in which, partly by bad luck and partly by inaccuracy, the ball remained out of the Sommer's Gate.
The great opportunity, the clearest of all, thus arrived in the 89th minute but Jorginho, crushed by too much pressure, failed miserably, thus forcing Italy to play for everything in 48 hours to Belfast, when a victory may not even be enough. “We'll play a good game and let's also hope for the goals that didn't arrive tonight – reassured Mancini – Against Switzerland, apart from the wrong penalty, we just missed the double goal because we did well in the second half, the game was difficult anyway and the goal conceded conditioned us, then in the second half we deserved the goal.
In any case, we still have the advantage…”. Yes, and it will be good not to forget it, because the funereal atmosphere that reigned yesterday at the end of the match was (is) rather heavy. Even in the event of a failure in Belfast, however, the play-offs would remain, but the memory of 2017 is too strong and painful not to leave behind a minimum of aftermath. In short, we all hope to close the file as soon as possible, therefore Monday: because if not go to the World 4 years ago it was unforgivable, repeating yourself now, as reigning European champions, would be downright absurd.
