“I’ve been on the national team nine years and still haven’t played at a World Cup. The Frenchman, fatefully, had also officiated the last World Cup play-off Italy lost against North Macedonia in 2022. Esposito, the Inter starlet who missed Italy’s opening spot kick, was a member of that team. And yet the national team’s travails in World Cup qualification occlude all of it, including the win at the Euros as recently as 2021. When Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup nine years ago, Gravina’s predecessor, Carlo Tavecchio, called it an apocalypse.

Source: Sky sports April 01, 2026 13:03 UTC