Italy was eliminated from World Cup Qualification by North Macedonia, a country rated 131st in the world by FIFA, on Thursday night at the Stadio Renzo Barbera in Palermo.
Italy had an astonishing 32 attempts in the tie, but only a few of them were dangerous to North Macedonia, who limited the Italians to long-distance efforts.
Stole Dimitrievski of Rayo Vallecano was outstanding in goal to keep Italy out, and the home side grew increasingly irritated as the clock ticked down.
North Macedonia provided little to no threat versus Italy, with their first shot coming after 45 minutes and no attempts inside the Italian penalty area.
However, it was two minutes into stoppage time when a long ball forward from a goal kick caused havoc in the Italy defense. As a result, substitute Bojan Miovski was able to head the ball on, and Aleksandar Trajkovski was able to beat Gianluigi Donnarumma from a distance of 25 yards.
Watch the winning goal below
Fans in Palermo were startled by his finish into the bottom corner of the net, and that goal will almost certainly have implications for Italy and coach Roberto Mancini.
Italian National Team despite winning Euro 2020 only nine months ago, is rated sixth in FIFA’s world rankings and will not be among the 32 countries competing in Qatar in November.
Italy has already been eliminated and will not compete in the 2022 World Cup, while North Macedonia will compete for a place in Qatar against Portugal, which defeated Turkey on Thursday night.
Portugal, meanwhile, defeated Turkey 3-1. Otavio and Diogo Jota scored in the first half to give them a comfortable advantage at the intermission. Burak Yilmaz, who had played a fantastic one-two with Cengiz Under, drew one back for the visitors.
Turkey had a chance to draw level, but Yilmaz missed a penalty five minutes from time, and Portugal’s Matheus Nunes sealed the victory deep into injury time.
