Italy fail to 2022 World Cup after losing in the semifinals of the play-offs. Italian defender Leonardo Bonucci rate format 2022 World Cup qualifiers illogical.
The qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in the European zone will be held in two rounds. The first round is the group phase, where each group winner immediately advances to Qatar.
The second round saw 12 teams consisting of the 10 group stage runners-up and the two best-ranked teams in the UEFA Nations League, who finished outside the top two in the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers group stage.
The 12 teams are then divided into three lanes and will compete for three tickets to the 2022 World Cup finals. The semifinals and the play-off final will be played on one leg each.
Italy must pass the 2022 World Cup play-offs after finishing as runners-up in Group C in the group phase. Gli Azzurri finished with 16 points from four wins and four draws, two points behind group winners Switzerland and qualifying directly for the 2022 World Cup finals.
The draw for the 2022 World Cup play-offs then pitted Italy with North Macedonia in the semifinals. Roberto Mancini’s men were then eliminated after losing 0-1 to North Macedonia.
Leonardo Bonucci criticized the format of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers that the European confederation (UEFA) teams had to pass. The Juventus defender compared with other confederation qualifications.
“We played a match that was only held once, an absurd format. Unfortunately it was decided like this but it was a crazy decision,” said Bonucci as reported by 90min.
“There are national teams that have qualified in other confederations where they have lost four or five times. Meanwhile, we were knocked out after conceding a goal in the 92nd minute of the first game where we lost at home. This new formula is absolutely crazy.”
“Even so this is not an excuse. Of course we should have performed better,” said Bonucci.
For comparison, the CONMEBOL zone 2022 World Cup qualifiers use a round-robin format that is followed by 10 Latin American countries. All teams will meet each other and the top four teams in the standings qualify directly for Qatar. While the fifth-placed team must pass through a play-off against a team from the AFC (Asia) confederation.
Meanwhile, the Asian zone 2022 World Cup qualifiers last for four rounds. Meanwhile, the qualification of the confederations of CAF (Africa) and CONCACAF is up to three rounds.
(nds/pur)
