World Cup
And yet Greece will have more victories than Italy in four consecutive World Cups
Beaten in the play-offs by North Macedonia, Italy are eliminated from the World Cup for the second straight year, while Greece have continued to record more wins than in the finals in the last four tournaments.
Aleksandar Trajkovski froze Palermo’s “Renzo Barbera” at 90+2′ when he scored the goal with his long-range shot 1-0 for North Macedonia and caused the big surprise of the previous barrage to exclude Italy from the 2022 World Cup.
The European champions, who lost at home for the first time in the history of World Cup qualifying, are absent for the second time in a row.
Apart from the fact that the “squadra azura” were the fourth national team to win the Euros and will not compete again at the next World Cup, they have also recorded fewer victories in the last four tournaments than Greece in the final stages.
Both took part in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, with Italy’s only win over England 2-1. On the contrary, the Blue and Whites count two wins against Nigeria in 2010 and Ivory Coast in 2014. However, both the national teams of Greece and Italy have not qualified for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup, which will be held in Qatar.
The results of Italy:
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2010
1st game: Italy – Paraguay 1-1
2nd game: Italy – New Zealand 1-1
3rd game: Slovakia – Italy 3-2
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2014
1st game: England – Italy 1-2
2nd game: Italy – Costa Rica 0-1
3rd race: Italy – Uruguay 0-1
The results of Greece:
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2010
1st game: South Korea 2-0 Greece
2nd game: Greece – Nigeria 2-1
3rd game: Greece – Argentina 0-2
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2014
1st game: Colombia – Greece 3-0
2nd game: Japan 0-0 Greece
3rd game: Greece – Ivory Coast 2-1
Stage 16: Costa Rica – Greece 1:1 (5:3 points)
Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.