Giorgio Chiellini, devastated by Italy’s elimination from the World Cup, was blunt: “We are destroyed, there is a great void left”

Italy has no consolation. Out of the World Cup again, like in 2018. But to make matters worse, in the two previous World Cups he left in the first round (2014 and 2010). How to explain to the tifosi, to the general Italian, that the Azzurri has been suffering for more than a decade? How to understand that every time that consecration in Germany 2006, when they defeated France in the final, remains like a more distant postcard? Everyone was thinking about the “very final” next Tuesday against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal. But North Macedonia got in the way of qualifying for Qatar 2022 and gave it a blow that caused stupor in the peninsula. The phrase from the 90 World Cup that links this moment with the one lived in San Paolo against Argentina, the “Siamo fuori”, is recycled. It explodes on social networks and in the headlines of the main media in the world. The football planet is shaken. The quadruple world champion will not be at the event par excellence. How to understand it?The Italian Domenico Berardi has no consolation after wasting a goal situation; then would come the catastropheThe players collapsed on the grass. And in the locker room, many of them cry. The sadness is immeasurable. Suddenly, the chivalry of Giorgio Chiellini emerges, the captain of Italy, the symbol of these last ones of great impacts. And his phrase before the RAI microphones is a roar: “We are destroyed.” Take a breath and get the words out with a commendable share of pride at a fateful moment, when everyone in Italy is targeting the players, the management and the leadership. “We are devastateds, we pay for the mistakes of the last few months. We hope to start over from Mancini”, he says, looking at a future that is as far away as that 2006. And he continues: “There is a great disappointment, we played a good game in which we certainly failed to score goals. We were not presumptuous, but something was missing. We have paid for errors from September to today, but I am proud of my colleagues. We are disappointed, we are devastated, we do not find the adjectives”.Now there is only a great emptiness. “We have to start again, now it is difficult to even comment. There will be a big void. I hope that in the future we can start again as it happened with the victory of the European Championship. We still hope that coach Roberto Mancini will be essential for this team.”