World Cup, Zoff: ‘Italy missing out for the third time is a footballing tragedy’

Rome, 1 April (LaPresse) – “Italy out of the World Cup again? The result is what it is, so the comment is the result itself. For the third time, failing to qualify for the World Cup is a tragedy for football, football-wise. Could it have been avoided? I don’t want to get into that; we wanted to avoid it, but we didn’t manage to.” So told LaPresse Dino Zoff, 1982 World Cup winner and former Italy manager, commenting on yet another debacle for the Azzurri, who yesterday failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third time following their defeat to Bosnia. “Gattuso? Gravina? I won’t comment on anything; it doesn’t seem appropriate. It was bad luck; things go wrong the first time, the second time, but the third time you can’t cling to anything,” added the former goalkeeper.