Football fans continue to be amazed at Italy’s shock loss against North Macedonia leading to them missing out on the World Cup for the second time in a row.
The Italians had an incredible tournament in the summer of 2021 in the Euros that saw the side pick up silverware for the first time since winning the World Cup in 2006.
In just a matter of months, Roberto Mancini’s side has experienced both the extreme highs and lows of the beautiful game as they will not be appearing for the quadrennial football party hosted by Qatar this year.
With their absence now confirmed, Italy have put up some unnecessary numbers as well that make their experience worse.
Having failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Italy’s last WC game was 2839 days ago in 2014 against England during the Group Stages. Their last knockout game in any WC was 5737 days ago, way back in 2006 when they beat France on penalties in the final to lift the trophy.
As Italy fans continue to unravel in the disappointment of the loss, it has not stopped rival fans from rubbing salt onto their wounds.
During the international friendly tie between England and Switzerland at Wembley Stadium, a few Swiss fans brought out a banner that trolled the Italian national team’s elimination from the qualifiers.
The banner features a Google search bar where someone has searched for “Italy World Cup 2022” but Google has not found a search result for it and has instead suggested “Switzerland” back.
Swiss fans have been on a high since 2021 after the team knocked out favourites France and reached the Quarter Finals during the Euros.
This was followed up by dominant performance in the World Cup qualifiers as the side topped their group which also incidentally had Italy.
As the Italians finished second, they went into the playoff round where they lost to North Macedonia.
Thus, perhaps it is not a random coincidence that Swiss fans brought out this banner at Wembley as they did effectively send Italy into the playoff rounds.
Having confirmed their ticket to Qatar, Swiss fans would be hoping for the team to match their run in the Euros and conjure up more surprise results in the tournament.
