Tearful Jorginho condemns himself: Jorginho, a Chelsea midfielder, was in tears when Italy was knocked out of the World Cup qualification on Thursday night.
Jorginho played the entire 90 minutes in Palermo, as Italy lost a playoff semi-final 1-0 to North Macedonia.
On the balance of play, Italy was the better team, but they failed to capitalize on their opportunities before succumbing to a 92nd-minute sucker punch.
Italy’s qualification campaign was marred by missed opportunities, as they were unable to qualify for Qatar 2022 by topping Group C.
Italy went undefeated in the group stage, winning four and drawing four of its qualifiers.
They narrowly lost to Switzerland on goal difference, but things might have been quite different if Jorginho had not missed two penalty kicks.
Jorginho is considered as a penalty specialist, but in November, he missed a penalty attempt in the dying minute of Italy’s 1-1 tie with Switzerland.
In a 0-0 tie two months ago, Switzerland goalkeeper Yann Sommer saved a Jorginho penalty.
On Thursday night, Jorginho told RAI Sport on Italy’s unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaign: “We played fantastic football, we won the European Championship last summer, but sadly in the final few games we made tiny errors and were unable to recover from them.” They made a significant difference.
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“It bothers me to think about it because I still do, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life… Stepping up there twice and being unable to assist your team and nation is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and it weighs heavily on my mind.
“People tell us we have to keep our heads up and keep going, but it’s difficult.”
