Italy will miss out on a second successive World Cup after Aleksandar Trajkovski’s stoppage-time strike gave North Macedonia a sensational 1-0 victory at Renzo Barbera.
Having also failed to qualify for the 2018 tournament in Russia, the European champions will not go for glory in Qatar this year after suffering their first World Cup qualifying defeat on home soil.
Roberto Mancini’s side dominated the game, but they were made to pay for their lack of a cutting edge in a dramatic finale.
Trajkovski was North Macedonia’s hero, beating Gianluigi Donnarumma from 25 years in the second minute of stoppage time set up a showdown with Portugal for a place in the World Cup. The Azzurri enjoyed over three-quarters of the possession inside the opening 15 minutes, but the North Macedonia defence stood firm with several important blocks to keep their opponents at bay.
That defiance was almost undone when Stole Dimitrievski miscued his pass straight to Domenico Berardi as the visitors tried to play out from the back. However, the goalkeeper recovered to keep out the Sassuolo forward’s tame attempt.
Alessandro Florenzi produced an inch-perfect sliding challenge to deny the breaking Darko Churlinov a shot on goal at the other end after sloppy play in the Italian midfield.
Italy continued to threaten after the break. Berardi was off target with a couple of decent opportunities from the edge of the box, while substitute Giacomo Raspadori fired narrowly over.
The game appeared to be heading for extra-time until the ball broke kindly for Trajkovski in the 92nd minute, and the striker unleashed a fierce long-range effort that flashed into the far corner to leave Italy not knowing what had hit them.
While Italy and their coach Roberto Mancini will be licking their wounds some eight months after the Euro title North Macedonia face a deciding match against Portugal on Tuesday for a place at the finals in Qatar.
Portugal beat Turkey 3-1 in Porto after Turkey veteran Burak Yilmaz missed a penalty for a 2-2 equalizer with six minutes left.
The hosts got a 15th-minute lead when Otavio slotted home from a tight right angle in his home stadium off Bernardo Silva’s shot against the post.
Liverpool’s Diogo Jota, who had missed from point-blank range early on, doubled the lead in the 42nd.
Turkey were back in the game in the 64th from Burak Yilmaz’ low shot off Cengiz Under’s through ball.
But veteran Yilmaz then missed a golden opportunity to level by firing an 84th-minute penalty over the bar after Enes Unal was hit by José Fonte, and Matheus Nunes then wrapped up matters.
Gareth Bale hardly sees any playing time at Real Madrid but he scored a brace in a 2-1 over Austria to keep Wales’ dream alive of playing at a first World Cup in 64 years.
Bale curled a free-kick into the top right corner in the 25th in Cardiff and smashed the second into the same place with a diagonal drive six minutes after the restart.
Bayern Munich midfielder Marcel Sabitzer pulled one back with a shot deflected by Ben Davis over the diving goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey a few minutes later but Wales hung on.
They will play for a spot in Qatar in June, with their opponents either Scotland or Ukraine whose game was postponed after the Russian invasion.
Thursday’s other game was Sweden v Czech Republic.
dpa
