Embarrassing goal creates tougher road as Italy bids to avoid missing third straight World Cup

ROME (AP) — If Italy fails to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time, an embarrassing goal might be remembered as contributing to another epic failure.

Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and the entire Azzurri defense were protesting to the referee when Joshua Kimmich played a short corner to Jamal Musiala, who scored into an empty net to give Germany a 2-0 lead over Italy in the Nations League quarterfinals in Dortmund.

Germany went ahead 3-0 by halftime before Italy fought back for a 3-3 draw but the home team still advanced 5-4 on aggregate Sunday.

“The second goal killed us,” Italy coach Luciano Spalletti said. “It was an easy thing to avoid. Having said that, these are my players and I will always back them, even if some criticism is appropriate.”

The result means Italy enters a five-team World Cup qualifying group featuring Erling Haaland’s Norway instead of a four-team group in which the highest-ranked nation is Slovakia.

Winning the group is the only way to ensure direct qualification to next year’s tournament in North America. The second-placed team goes into the playoffs — the stage where Italy was eliminated by Sweden and North Macedonia and ruled out of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, respectively.

A four-time World Cup champion, the only other time Italy didn’t qualify was for the 1958 edition.

Norway opened qualifying in splendid form with a 5-0 win at Moldova on Saturday. Also in Italy’s group, Israel beat Estonia 2-1 in its opener.

Norway will be back in action on Tuesday against Israel, which will play its “home” match in Debrecen, Hungary.

Italy won’t start qualifying until June, opening at Norway and also finishing group play against the squad led by Manchester City’s scoring juggernaut Haaland.

“We can’t fail,” said Italy defender Giovanni Di Lorenzo.

Spalletti said he ridiculed his team at halftime.

“And they had the wits to put together a solid second half,” the coach said.

Still, Italy appeared confused for long stretches of both legs. The Azzurri conceded two headed goals in a 2-1 loss in the first leg and Spalletti acknowledged that he got his starting lineup wrong for the return match.

Now, there’s not much more room for mistakes.

Donnarumma has also made blunders with PSG

Donnarumma has also made numerous glaring errors with Paris Saint-Germain.

In a Champions League quarterfinal against Barcelona last season, Donnarumma failed to come for a corner and central defender Andreas Christensen headed in the winner.

Donnarumma’s hesitancy was repeated in the semifinal return leg against Borussia Dortmund when defender Mats Hummels rose unchallenged to head in Julian Brandt’s corner from the left — a carbon copy of Christensen’s goal.

Donnarumma has also been blamed for mistakes in this season’s Champions League — although he also saved two penalties in a shootout win over Liverpool this month.

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AP Sports Writer Jerome Pugmire in Paris contributed to this report.

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