The elimination of Italy
The elimination of Italy has generated dismay among many fans who saw the 'Nazionale' as the clear favorite within the playoff bracket they were in. However, the final result indicated that Sweden is the one celebrating, while the Italian national team joins Netherlands and Chile as the countries that were expected to secure their ticket to Russia 2018 but did not.
A familiar story for 'Azurri'
The 'Azurri' had experienced this before, although many years ago, as in the World Cup held in the Scandinavian country, which is the rival responsible for their elimination today, they failed to overcome Northern Ireland and said goodbye to their World Cup dream.
History repeats itself
This is something that has happened before. The spots in the World Cup are limited, and it is very possible for a candidate to be left out, surprising everyone. If we look back at this situation in the past, we can remember Argentina, eliminated by Peru in the qualifying process for Mexico 1970.
A more recent story
In a more recent story, Netherlands, another team eliminated in these qualifiers, could not reach Mexico 1986 despite having a generation that included Marco Van Basten, Frank Rikjaard, and Ruud Gullit. That squad, which would be crowned a couple of years later in the Euros, missed their chance against Belgium.