‘Gattuso’s fundamental Italy mistake ahead of life-or-death World Cup playoff’

La Gazzetta dello Sport is highly critical of Italy’s performance against Moldova, claiming that Gennaro Gattuso made a ‘fundamental mistake’ despite a 2-0 win.

Gazzetta dello Sport journalist Arianna Ravelli examined Italy’s win over Moldova on Thursday, a result that kept the Azzurri second in Group I and confirmed they’ll need to go through the playoffs to reach the World Cup.

“It took 88 minutes (at times painfully boring) to finally score a goal against Moldova, and the second one came in stoppage time. An enormous struggle. Both of Italy’s goals came from substitutes,” wrote the Gazzetta journalist.

“Even Retegui was more convincing than Scamacca, who had started the match. All of these details highlight Rino Gattuso’s fundamental mistake: lost in calculations of opportunism, in pointless rotation (especially since it involved players who are used to playing every three days for their clubs) and an attempt to ‘save energy’ that now that qualification will go, as expected, through the playoffs, made no sense. The stronger team came on later, needlessly putting us at risk.”

The Italian journalist argued that Gattuso should be focusing on building a stronger confidence and self-esteem ahead of next year’s playoffs.

“It’s better, in fact, to remember where we’re coming from. Because this fragile Italy, coming out bruised after Spalletti’s painful dismissal, needs one thing above all: keep growing while sheltered from controversy and rebuild its self-confidence ahead of the only goal that matters, getting through the playoffs to finally return to the World Cup.

“The risk of making a fool of ourselves (not entirely avoided in the end) seemed real. A draw against Moldova (who had lost 5-0 at home to Norway) would have been an unacceptable price for this Italy, a team that needs to gather confidence whenever it can.”

The Azzurri are practically certain to be in the playoffs in March, as only a win by nine goals against Norway on Sunday would give direct access to the World Cup.

“On Sunday against Norway, we’ll be playing only for pride, and that’s no small thing,” the journalist concluded.

“Catching up with them at 21 points at the top of the group would be another boost to our self-esteem. Then, we’ll be where we’ve long known we were destined to end up: standing before the mirror and our own ghosts, facing a life-or-death showdown that, for many reasons, we simply cannot afford to get wrong.”