At 8:45 p.m. on 9 November, the two play-off matches kicked off first, and the teams with the higher international rankings got off to a flying start. Switzerland beat Northern Ireland 1-0 away and Croatia beat Greece 4-1 at home, with both teams almost having one hand on their way to qualify for next year's World Cup in Russia.

At the same time on the evening of the 10th, at the Solna Friendship Stadium in Stockholm, the first leg of the match between the Swedish team and the Italian team officially began. The home team's coach Jane Andersson still maintained his usual 4-4-2 formation, with Manchester United centre-back Victor Lindelof, Leipzig wing-back Fernsberg and Toulouse striker Toivonen all starting.

Ventura, who has been criticized, has changed the formation again, using a 3-5-2 position that focuses more on midfield control, goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, the back three are former Juventus teammates Barzagli, Chiellini and Bonucci, the midfield De Rossi, Verratti and Parolo are in the middle, the right wingback Candreva and the left wingback are the right-back Darmian cameo, and the two forwards are the Torino pair Immobile and Belotti.

This lineup is quite strong on paper, but there are also a lot of shortcomings. The average age of the three defenders is on the older side, and it will be very difficult to face the Nordic players who are good at physical confrontation; The technical characteristics of the Candreva winger doomed him to not ask too much for his contribution to the team's defence, which left some hidden dangers on the right side of Italy, requiring his teammates to pay attention to the defense at all times; As for Damian on the left side is a backfoot, it is difficult to have a reliable performance in the offensive cross, and it is not as good as going directly to Insigne if he cuts inside, and if you want to strengthen the defense, you can also use the authentic left-back Spinazzola, which makes people wonder why Ventura is so arranged.

After the opening kick-off, the Swede took advantage of home advantage to force a wave, but Forsberg's footwork was poor and he squandered a good chance to open the scoring with a well-placed free-kick. The visitors' tactical intent to attack the two flanks was clear, with Darmian and Candreva each having three low crosses in the first 30 minutes, but most of them were broken by defenders, and the only time Belotti fought for a landing was that he couldn't fully hit the post and went wide of the post. On top of that, it is rare to see short passes and diagonal cuts in the middle, and Verratti, who has not been injured during the national team break, has turned into a sapper, rarely appearing in dangerous areas at the edge of the opponent's penalty area to organise attacks, so that the two strikers of this side have not been able to threaten the home team's goal.

On the other hand, the Swedish team, which has always been regarded by the outside world as a simple and rough style of play, has obviously enriched more than one level of attacking routines on the field, although the two strikers are excellent in heading ability, but the home team players are not blindly crossing the ball on the side, but a combination of methods, creating a lot of problems for the Italian backline.

In the seventh minute, Forsberg crossed and Toivonen's long-range shot from the top of the box was slightly wide; The Swedish midfielder Klerson sent a precise diagonal pass through the visitors' two defences, but Forsberg's run was slightly ahead of schedule and the linesman raised the flag for offside, otherwise it would have been a beautiful one-on-one chance; In the 36th minute, after a succession of passes from four home players, the ball was sent into the Italian penalty area, and the striker Borg, who plays for Al Ain, was defused by Buffon in time to save his shot from close range in front of the goal.

Judging from the attacking choices on the field and the tactical literacy of the players, the Nordics have a clear advantage, which 99% of people would not have thought of in advance. I believe that the fans of the Celestial Empire who are watching this live broadcast at this time will have the illusion that this is the Swedish team playing against the Celestial Empire men's football team, just like Li Mudi. To be honest, even if Lippi leads his team to play, it doesn't feel like the effect is too different, at most, the offensive end is a little rougher and weaker, I really don't know how a straw bag like Ventura won the favor of the Italian Football Federation and qualified to take over the national team.

Yes, although he originally looked down on his predecessor, Li Mudi at least felt that this old coach could be in Italian football for so many years without failing, how could it be an old fritter with some ability and means. But after watching the game of this blue team this year, the current coach of Torino has repeatedly felt that the other party is bad to a certain extent in terms of coaching philosophy and on-the-spot adaptability, stubborn and backward, these old era coaches are really not lacking in him, such people have been eliminated by the times, and they cannot survive in the modern football world. In the past few years, the Torino club, which had a decent foundation, has suffered from it, struggling in the middle and lower reaches of the league, and now the victims are the national team and all the Italian fans.

At half-time, the two teams were almost evenly matched in terms of technical statistics, but in terms of attacking quality, it was clear that the home team was much stronger, with two of Torino's forwards almost lost between the opposing backline, and the rest of the Italians, with the exception of the goalkeeper's back three, the rest of the Italian players were underperforming, playing a terrible 45 minutes.

After the rematch, the visitors who were still in the front field only knew how to play two wings still could not pose any threat to the opponent's goal, Candreva on the right side first slid through the bottom cross, and then the inside goal was too easy to hold by the Swedish goalkeeper Olsen due to the angle, and the other Italian players were just spectators.

In the 57th minute, 27-year-old midfielder Jacob Johansen, who plays for AEK Athens, came on to replace the average Ekdal, and this substitution proved to be a crucial decision that determined the final fate of both teams. In the 60th minute, right-back Kraft threw a long-range touchline ball from the right near the baseline, Toivonen resisted Chiellini's squeeze and dive header to the edge of the box, and Johansen, who had just played three minutes, volleyed with his right foot, the ball passed between two Italian defenders, causing Buffon to make a mistake in judgment and fly past his fallen legs into the bottom corner on the right. 1-0, Sweden took the lead.

The Italians who were behind the score naturally wanted to make a change, and Ventura chose to replace Belotti with Eder who could not play his ability to grab points in the face of tall defenders, so that the team completely lost the basis point of scrambling for high-altitude balls in the opponent's penalty area, and could only make a fuss on the ground attack in the remaining time, and this substitution idea is somewhat similar to Spalletti's last round of league games when he fell behind the Torino team.

However, after taking the lead, the Swedish team began to hold on to the penalty area, retreating all three lines, using the numerical advantage to seal the dangerous area of their own half, making the visitors' tactics completely ineffective. Verratti, who only gained more offensive organization power at this time, was helpless in the face of the dense defense in front of him, he wanted to use direct passes to penetrate the opponent's defense, but because the home team's back line retreated very far, his pass could only be closer to the goal, and as a result, it was resolved by the goalkeeper once, and once it went directly out of the bottom line.

However, the Swedes' defence retreated to leave some space at the edge of the penalty area, and in the 69th minute, the Italians almost seized the opportunity to equalise. Verratti drew the defenders on the left and crossed to the top of the box, and Darmian fired a right-footed shot from distance before the block arrived, but Lady Luck didn't get to their side and the ball hit the post and bounced back into the box. As everyone was caught off guard, it was inevitable that they would be slow in the scramble for the second landing, and in the end the home defender took the first shot, touched the ball back in front of goal, and was pounced on by Olsen.

The fact that the kick hit the woodwork was a serious blow to the morale of the visiting players, and they did not form a decent attack after that, and Ventura inexplicably replaced Verratti in the 76th minute, allowing Insigne to play as a central midfielder for more than ten minutes, causing chaos in the front of the team, and finally failed to get away from the away side, losing 0-1 for a while.

Although everyone has been prepared for the difficulty of the game for a long time, and some people feel that the loss can be reluctantly accepted, after all, it is a two-legged encounter, and there are 90 minutes at home, but the content of this game is desperate. The team's attack is nothing short of amateurish-level performance, and even Benevento, who has already recorded a record of 12 consecutive defeats in Serie A, is playing better than the national team, so how can it be fun? What to rely on to turn the tables at home?

Some pessimistic Italian fans have begun to express their disappointment on the Internet, but most of them are still mainly supportive and encouraging, because there is nothing else to do at this critical time. Change of coach? Not to mention whether there is a fool who will take the blame at this time, even if there is, it will be too late, the second round will be played in three days, and it is estimated that the new tactics will have to enter the game before even the new tactics are finished, and the result will probably be worse. Change of players? The squad has been declared, and there are no injuries that cannot be changed, even if they can be replaced, who else can be called? Although I dare not say that all the players who are eligible to be selected for the national team are there, the current list of 25 players is already a collection of the best players in the country, each of them is the star of their respective clubs, and their performance in the league is also very good, and it is not necessarily better than them if someone else comes to replace them.

So, with the expectations of the people of the whole country and a little abuse, the Blue Coats ushered in this life-and-death battle at the San Siro Stadium on the evening of the 13th. As soon as Ventura's formation was announced before the game, most of the home team's supporters were frustrated, and it was still the same 3-5-2, with only three positions to be replaced. Parolo was retained in the middle of the midfield, with the other two becoming Florenzi and Napoli midfielder Jorginho, who was born in Brazil, with Belotti on the bench after a lack of performance in the first leg up front, replaced by Southampton striker Gabbiadini.

Jorginho's passing ability is the same as Verratti in the FM system, but there is still a gap between imagination and personal skills with the Paris midfielder, and the tournament performance is also average, and more importantly, Ventura's tactical thinking rarely uses the passing of the central midfielder, as an all-round midfielder, it is really not as good as De Rossi or Gagliardini. Florenzi, on the other hand, has always been on the right side of the club, and although he can also play a central role, it is only a cameo, and playing as a central midfielder cannot take advantage of his speed and running without the ball. As for the adjustment of the forward line, even if Belotti has just returned from injury and his state is doubtful, but in the case of urgent need for goals, it should be Zaza who will play, the Valencia striker has scored nine goals in La Liga before, as many as Real Madrid's BBC trio combined, this state is not necessary to be drunk.

After the opening, it was the home team that attacked aggressively, while the Nordics retreated from all sides, and even the two strikers acted as defenders who continued to actively scramble near the halfway line to interfere with the Italian players' passes. Except for Florenzi's long-range shot, in the first 20 minutes, various attempts to cross from the wing to the Swedish team penalty area were all lost and failed to make a wave. To sum up Ventura's tactics, it is Candreva cross from the right, Parolo cross from the left, Candreva corner cross, Florenzi 45-degree cross...... It's a pity that Immobile and Gabbiadini are not opponents in the opponent's backline with an average height of about 1.88 meters, so they can only try to fight for a second drop on the periphery of the penalty area, and form two long-range shots that are not threatening.

At half-time, the two sides had equal possession time, but the home team's 13-2 shots on goal showed the different tactical approaches of the two sides, but in the face of the Swedes' dense defense, the Italian players seemed at a loss, and could only hope to make mistakes by bombing indiscriminately.

It is worth mentioning that today's referee also had a lot of controversy in the decision, Parolo was hit by the visiting defender Augustinsson with the ball in the penalty area, the ball reached the hand of Darmian when Borg broke through in the penalty area, and Forsberg's diagonal pass was intercepted by Balza's hand.

At the beginning of the second half, Darmian was brought down by Swedish defender Lustig when he received a cross from a teammate on the right side of the penalty area and was about to stop the ball, but the referee blew for a handball foul on the Italian, which drew deafening boos from the fans. The home side continued to be crosses from the side, with only two low balls being snatched off the spot by their own, but the Azzurri were still a little way from goal as Mobile's stab in front of the post and Candreva on the edge of the box failed to hit the woodwork.

Ventura then made two substitutions on 62 minutes, with Roma winger El Shaarawy replacing Damien, and Belotti, the best of the forwards, replacing Gabbiadini who had been inactive in the start. After moving Florenzi to left-back, the formation changed to 4-2-4, and the first two times he used that style of play was poor. In the two games of the three-goal defeat to Spain and the barely one-goal victory over Albania, the Italian team used this routine, but the scene was ugly and not technical at all. Today, under the pressure of having to score goals, this formation was presented again, and I believe the fans are already on the verge of despair.

In the 65th minute, Florenzi received a cross from the left side of the box after receiving a cross from the team, and the ball bounced off the crossbar in a miraculous way, but luck was still not on the side of the home team. As the mentality became more and more impatient, the attacking options of the home team's players became simpler, and almost every pass was intended to create a direct opportunity to attack, making the defensive options of the Swedes easier to deal with. After that, Florenzi, Candreva, Parolo, substitutes Benardski, Belotti and Shaarawy all had shots, but most of them ended up off target. It wasn't until the 92nd minute, when Jorginho's long-range shot from outside the area also went wide of the post, that the entire San Siro stadium was plunged into endless mourning.

Li Mudi watched the broadcast screen on TV in the apartment, and once again felt the heartache of the previous national football team to lose the qualification, even if this is not the best group of players in the history of the Blue Coats, but with their ability and hard work, there is still no problem in obtaining a qualification for the World Cup, but why did things develop to such an extent?

When the whistle blew at the end of the game, watching the Swedish team celebrate wildly, all Italians had tears in their eyes and their minds went blank, and the Apennine Peninsula today was like a hell and lost all hope.