Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has labelled Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup after losing to North Macedonia a ‘disaster’.
Roberto Mancini’s side suffered a shock 1-0 defeat in the playoff semi-finals on Thursday night, just eight months on from their Euro 2020 triumph.
Aleksandar Trajkovski’s winner in stoppage time secured the victory for North Macedonia, who go on to play Portugal in the final with a place at the World Cup on the line.
Eriksson feels it’s a ‘pity’ European champions Italy won’t be competing at Qatar 2022.
‘That’s a disaster,’ Eriksson told .
‘They won the Euros some months ago and they were maybe one of the favourites to win the and now they are out against North Macedonia. That hurts very, very much.
‘I haven’t had the courage yet to phone my friend Mancini, but I will do it during the day.
‘For Italian fans, that’s impossible, but it happened, unfortunately.
‘It’s a pity because Italy in the big tournaments, it’s always a good team and good football but it happens, everything is possible in football.’
The team who lost out to Italy in the Euro 2020 final last summer, England, will be at the World Cup later this year, and Eriksson believes Gareth Southgate’s side are one of the favourites to win the tournament.
‘I’m sure they’ve got a big, big chance to win it,’ he added.
‘They were close to winning the Euros and I think they are one of the big, big favourites to do it.
‘They have a lot of good football players so maybe it’s time to win it this time.’
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