Italian football is in crisis

In a match in Group I of the European Division in the World Cup, Italy unexpectedly lost 0-3 to Norway. Although he only played one round, Spaletti and his disciples looked like they had lost their chances of getting the top spot.

Norway has achieved three consecutive victories, namely a 5-0 victory over Moldova, a 4-2 victory over Israel and a 3-0 victory over Italy. In addition, they have to play two games with Estonia, which ranks 121st in the world. If nothing unexpected happens, they should be able to score 6 points. They also have a great chance of getting 3 points in the second leg against Moldova and Israel. Therefore, even if you lose the second leg against Italy, Norway can still win the top spot in the group by relying on the advantage of goal difference.

According to the rules of the competition, the top group can directly advance to next year's World Cup, and the second place needs to participate in the playoffs. In this way, Italy will compete with the other 11 teams second and four teams from the European League for the remaining four places. Italy has tasted bitter fruit in the play-offs in the past two events. In the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, they lost 0-1 to Sweden; in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, Mancini's team lost 0-1 to North Macedonia. After the game, the Italian media seemed to have lost confidence in coach Spalletti. "Milan Sports" wrote: It is necessary to make a complete change in technology and tactics immediately. The Italian team we see in Oslo is shameful. The team was crushed by the opponent. Spaletti seems to have reached his technical limit, which is full of doubts.

In addition, Spaletti led the team to perform poorly in the 2024 European Cup, failed to qualify in the group, and the UEFA Nations League stopped in the quarterfinals, and now he fell behind the Norwegian team again.

The Italian team won the World Cup in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006, the same number of championships as the German team and only one less than Brazil. But after winning the championship in 2006, they were in crisis, and they stopped in the group stages of the World Cup in 2010 and 2014, and were directly missed in the last two sessions.

It can be seen that Italian football has been a bit unsuccessful in recent years. Although there was a glimmer of hope when winning the 2020 European Cup, Italian teams rarely saw high-level top players after the golden generation such as Maldini, Nesta, Cannavaro, Pirlo and Toti grew older. In addition to the difficulty in finding a suitable coach, it is also difficult to say that Italian football's performance at the club level is also difficult to express satisfaction. In the just-concluded Champions League final, Inter Milan from Serie A won 5-0 by Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1.

On June 9, Italy will play against Moldova at home. This will be a chance for Spaletti to temporarily retain his coaching position.