World Cup playoffs: Italy on edge, Sweden shorn of stars and another chance for Lewandowski
When Fabio Cannavaro raised aloft the golden World Cup trophy inside Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in 2006, few could have imagined the pain soccer’s biggest event would inflict on Italy over the next two decades. In 2010, the Azzurri put up a woeful title defense, not even winning a game in an embarrassing group-stage exit. In 2014, they again didn’t reach the knockout stage, dumped out by a Uruguay goal scored soon after Luis Suarez bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.
As for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, the Italians didn’t even get there, eliminated in the European playoffs in an utter humiliation for a soccer-mad nation. No wonder the country is on edge this week. Italy is back in the World Cup playoffs, one of 16 European teams competing for the four remaining spots from the continent for this summer’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The World Cup has never been bigger, enlarged to 48 countries including 16 from Europe. And still Italy needs to get in via the back door, a bad look for a four-time world champion and a traditional hotbed for the sport. Standing in Italy’s way in the playoff semifinals taking place across Europe on Thursday will be Northern Ireland in Bergamo.
Win that — and the Azzurri are big favorites — and they’ll need to beat either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina to advance to the World Cup. Italy is undoubtedly the big story from the playoff. Here are some more things to watch out for: Sweden shorn of its big names It's crunch time for Graham Potter.
The former Chelsea and West Ham coach was hired by Sweden last year, initially on a short-term deal and with one task — get the team to the World Cup. That is still to be determined but Potter has clearly done enough in the meantime to impress the federation, which handed him a contract to 2030 last week. It's quite the show of support for Potter ahead of the playoffs, where Sweden faces war-torn Ukraine on neutral territory in Valencia, Spain.
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