European champions Italy will not be competing at the 2022 World Cup after suffering a shock 1-0 defeat at home to North Macedonia in their playoff semi-final on Thursday night.
A dramatic 92nd-minute strike from Aleksandar Trajkovski broke the deadlock for the visitors in Palermo, sending the four-time world champions and current Euro 2020 holders packing.
The Azzurri, who did not compete at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, will not take part in Qatar later this year either, and have now failed to qualify for successive finals for the first time in their history.
Despite dominating proceedings in the first half with 66% possession, Italy were frustrated by their North Macedonian counterparts and could only record three of their 16 shots on target.
The best chance in the first 45 fell to the Azzurri on the half-hour mark, when goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski fired a clearance straight into the path of Domenico Berardi; however, the Sassuolo forward's tame left-footed effort was comfortably collected by Dimitrievski.
In the second half, it was all one-way traffic as Roberto Mancini's men continued to push for the opener, with Berardi the host's main threat in the final third, but they were wasteful in front of goal.
North Macedonia's resilient backline threw their bodies on the line and at times had encouraging breaks on the counter-attack, but they were unable to test Gianluigi Donnarumma between the sticks.
With the playoff tie seemingly heading towards extra time, Al-Fayha striker Trajkovski – North Macedonia's most-capped player among their current squad with 75 appearances – produced a moment of magic in stoppage time, rifling a clean right-footed strike from the edge of the area past Donnarumma into the bottom-left corner.
While wild scenes emerged from North Macedonia's bench, the Italian squad were left in disbelief. The Azzurri dominated the 90 minutes with a total of 32 shots on goal, but failing to take their chances proved costly and sees them crashing out in the World Cup qualifiers against a nation positioned 61 places below them in the world rankings.
North Macedonia will now prepare for a playoff final encounter away against Portugal on March 29, with the winners qualifying for this year's showpiece tournament in Qatar.
Oliver Thomas
