European champions Italy face North Macedonia test in quest to reach World Cup

It is perhaps the most prestigious ‘Double’ in international football: World Cup holders and champions of Europe at the same time. West Germany achieved it in the 1970s. France followed up their 1998 World Cup by claiming the Euros two years later. Spain added an extra tier to the feat: European Championship winners in 2008 and 2012, either side of their first World Cup. Italy, according to their manager Roberto Mancini, intend to join this elect trio by the end of 2022. “We want to go there and win the World Cup,” Mancini said as he prepared for the Azzurri’s meeting with North Macedonia on Thursday. It is a natural, logical ambition given how impressively Mancini’s Azzurri conquered last summer’s European Championship, pushing aside Belgium and Spain in the knockout rounds, keeping their composure to win the Euro 2020 final against England , at Wembley, on penalties. The hitch is that the momentum built up at the Euros was not enough to carry Italy through World Cup qualifying as effectively as the likes of Germany, France and Spain. Those countries, like England, are spending this week and next fine-tuning their plans for Qatar 2022 having already secured their tickets there by topping their qualifying groups. As did Switzerland, who finished above Italy, obliging Mancini and the men with whom he conquered Wembley only eight months ago to enter the new-look European play-off system. Italy will only be at the World Cup if they win in Sicily on Thursday, in the semi-final of Uefa’s Path C of the play-offs, and then defeat Portugal or Turkey, who play in the other semi, on Tuesday. North Macedonia sit 67th in the Fifa rankings, and Mancini is aware of a broad assumption that the play-off semi is the straightforward part, that the nasty punchline is likeliest to come in a meeting with Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias and company in Porto at the play-off final. Both Italy’s manager and Fernando Santos, the veteran coach who guided Portugal to the 2016 European Championship title, are anxious to avoid assumptions, or giving the impression that a likely Portugal-Italy showdown is playing on their minds already. Yet Mancini is leaving some clues that his strategy over the next five days cannot simply be to take one game at a time. Take the dilemma over his captain, Giorgio Chiellini. The 37-year-old defender, returning from injury, has played just 45 minutes for his club, Juventus, since February 6. Mancini seems minded to rest Chiellini, so the captain can be more ready to face 90 minutes - or 120, if it goes to extra time - against Portugal or Turkey next week. Italy are already set to line up an unfamiliar defence, with all four of the back line essentially understudies. Chiellini’s enduring partner for club and country, Leonardo Bonucci has been out for the best part of month with a calf problem. Once again, the instinct from the coaching staff is to give him four more days of recuperation ahead of a possible final. The Napoli right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo is also out injured while the dynamic left-back Leonardo Spinazzola, who ruptured his Achilles tendon during the Euros, is still waiting to make his comeback for Roma. Bonucci, 34, and Chiellini cannot help but look on this crossroads moment nervously. The 2022 World Cup would almost certainly be their last. Four years ago, they were in the Italy team that met Sweden in a more conventional two-leg, home and away decider for a place at the World Cup in Russia. Italy went through the entire 180 minutes without a goal, Sweden defending a 1-0 advantage for the last two hours of the tie. The then Italy manager Gian Piero Ventura quit immediately. It was the first World Cup since 1958 that Italy had failed to reach. On the way to those deflating nights against Sweden, points had been dropped in the group phase, condemning Italy to the play-off route. And North Macedonia were part of the problem. Italy drew 1-1 at home against them; they only beat the Macedonians 3-2 away thanks to a stoppage-time winner from Ciro Immobile. “It will not be easy,” said Mancini, “and of course we’d have preferred to avoid the play-offs this time. But I have only one scenario in my head and it is not Scenario B, the negative one. I’m focused on Scenario A.” That’s the one that leads all the way to lifting the 2022 World Cup.

European champions Italy face North Macedonia test in quest to reach World Cup

Mancini's side must win play-off semi-final on Thursday and then beat Portugal or Turkey next week for place in Qatar finals