The coach Roberto Mancini referred to the playoff that the Italian National Team will have to play for drawing against Northern Ireland in the last round of the Group stage of the Qualifiers, stating that they will manage to reach the Qatar 2022 World Cup, and furthermore, he expressed that it is most likely that they will win the World Cup.
"We have those matches in March, we will prepare well and we will go to the World Cup through the playoffs. I am completely confident, we will qualify in March and maybe we will win it," he said in a press conference.
Likewise, the strategist explained that reaching this dreaded stage is due to the lack of effectiveness they had in the last matches, and that prevented them from securing their qualification before this last match.
"We missed two penalties in the decisive matches. We have to remain calm and then in March we will get the ticket. It is a tough moment for us, it is a shame because we should have closed this group before this match. We will prepare well and we will go to Qatar through the playoffs," he concluded.
When does the playoff start?
The European playoffs are scheduled to begin in March 2022, and so far, there are already 10 countries that will compete in this dreaded stage. Only the last two nations remain to be determined.