Italy players go from heroes to zeros as World Cup dreams are shattered again

ROME : Eight months after winning the European Championship trophy and being feted as national heroes, Italy's soccer team have crashed back to earth, missing out on the World Cup finals for the second time running.

"To Hell," daily Corriere dello Sport said in its front-page headline, summing up the sense of horror after Italy lost 1-0 at home to little-fancied North Macedonia, ensuring they would not take part in the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

It was a shock repeat of four years ago, when Italy failed to reach soccer's global showpiece tournament for the first time since 1958. But after the team's victory in the European final against England last July, few people believed a repeat calamity was looming.

"This is an epoch-making disaster. The shame is worse than ever," Il Messaggero wrote on Friday.

Italy have won the World Cup four times, most recently in 2006. However, they exited at the group stage in 2010 and 2014, and this latest setback suggested that the European triumph in 2021 was merely a blip in a prolonged period of decline.

"What can I say, we got too lucky at the Europeans and we paid for it. It is that simple," said Rome resident Carlo de Marchi.

Just like in 2018, Italy are the only former champions not to make it to the finals and newspapers saw the elimination as a reflection of wider problems in the national game.

For the last two seasons, no Italian teams have reached the quarter-finals of the prestigious Champions League, a trophy which has eluded Italy since 2010, with many domestic clubs weighed down by debt and unable to attract the top talent that once flocked to Serie A.

"The system, Italian soccer in its entirety, needs to be put on trial," Italy's top-selling sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport, wrote in