Italy get the boot

PARIS. — Reigning European football champions Italy will miss a second straight World Cup after losing to a dramatic stoppage-time goal against North Macedonia on Thursday night, but Portugal, Wales and Sweden all made it through to qualifying play-off deciders.

Four-time World Cup winners Italy were stunned in Palermo as Aleksandar Trajkovski — who used to play club football in the Sicilian city — fired past Gianluigi Donnarumma in the second minute of injury time to give North Macedonia an incredible 1-0 victory.

Italy will again be absent from the World Cup in Qatar after also failing to qualify for the 2018 tournament in Russia when they lost in a play-off to Sweden. That was a traumatic experience for a nation that had previously been to every tournament since 1958, and this failure is all the more remarkable given that they were crowned European champions less than nine months ago.

That success for Roberto Mancini’s side came during a world record 37-game unbeaten run, but four draws in their last five qualifiers last autumn saw them finish second in their group to Switzerland, exposing them to the dangers of the play-offs again.

“It’s hard to explain, it’s such a huge disappointment,” captain Giorgio Chiellini said to RAI.

“We’ve made mistakes since September and we’ve paid for them. We’re distraught.”

North Macedonia, the Balkan nation of just two million people, held Italy to a draw in Turin in 2018 World Cup qualifying and beat Germany away in this campaign before appearing at their debut European Championship last year.

“We won the Italian way against the Italians, a goal from just two shots,” said their coach, Blagoja Milevski.

They will now go to Porto to face Portugal on Tuesday, after the Euro 2016 winners defeated Turkey 3-1 at the Estadio do Dragao, albeit only after Burak Yilmaz missed a crucial late penalty for the visitors.

The home side were cruising thanks to first-half goals by Brazilian-born midfielder Otavio and Liverpool forward Diogo Jota.

But Turkey’s veteran skipper Yilmaz pulled a goal back in the 65th minute, setting up a tense finish.— AFP.