Bergamo: When Fabio Cannavaro raised aloft the golden World Cup trophy inside Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in 2006, few could have imagined the pain soccer’s biggest event would inflict on Italy over the next two decades.
In 2010, the Azzurri put up a woeful title defence, not even winning a game in an embarrassing group-stage exit. In 2014, they again didn’t reach the knockout stage, dumped out by a Uruguay goal scored soon after Luis Suarez bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.
As for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, the Italians didn’t even get there, eliminated in the European playoffs in an utter humiliation for a soccer-mad nation.
No wonder the country is on edge this week.
Italy are back in the World Cup playoffs, one of 16 European teams competing for the four remaining spots from the continent for this summer’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Standing in Italy’s way in the playoff semifinals taking place across Europe on Thursday will be Northern Ireland. Win that — and the Azzurri are big favorites — and they’ll need to beat either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina. agencies
Sweden shorn of big names
It’s crunch time for Graham Potter. The former Chelsea and West Ham coach was hired by Sweden last year, initially on a short-term deal and with one task — get the team to the World Cup.
Lewandowski’s chance
It’s always dangerous to write off the careers of soccer’s top players — Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo is likely headed to the World Cup at age 41, for example — but this might be Robert Lewandowski’s final shot at a World Cup.
The 37-year-old had a brief spell away from Poland’s national team last year, making himself unavailable after he was stripped of the captaincy by then-coach Michal Probierz.