European champions Italy face North Macedonia test in quest to reach World Cup

It is perhaps the most prestigious ‘Double’ in international football: World Cup holders and champions of Europe at the same time. West Germany achieved it in the 1970s. France followed up their 1998 World Cup by claiming the Euros two years later. Spain added an extra tier to the feat: European Championship winners in 2008 and 2012, either side of their first World Cup.

Italy, according to their manager Roberto Mancini, intend to join this elect trio by the end of 2022. “We want to go there and win the World Cup,” Mancini said as he prepared for the Azzurri’s meeting with North Macedonia on Thursday.

It is a natural, logical ambition given how impressively Mancini’s Azzurri conquered last summer’s European Championship, pushing aside Belgium and Spain in the knockout rounds, keeping their composure to win the Euro 2020 final against England, at Wembley, on penalties.

The hitch is that the momentum built up at the Euros was not enough to carry Italy through World Cup qualifying as effectively as the likes of Germany, France and Spain. Those countries, like England, are spending this week and next fine-tuning their plans for Qatar 2022 having already secured their tickets there by topping their qualifying groups.

As did Switzerland, who finished above Italy, obliging Mancini and the men with whom he conquered Wembley only eight months ago to enter the new-look European play-off system. Italy will only be at the World Cup if they win in Sicily on Thursday, in the semi-final of Uefa’s Path C of the play-offs, and then defeat Portugal or Turkey, who play in the other semi, on Tuesday.

North Macedonia sit 67th in the Fifa rankings, and Mancini is aware of a broad assumption that the play-off semi is the straightforward part,