Italian gamers react after dropping the Girls’s World Cup Group G match towards South Africa in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. (AP Picture/Alessandra Tarantino)
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Italy’s gamers dropped to their knees, buried their faces and tearfully questioned how their event had instantly ended following a stunning upset to South Africa within the Girls’s World Cup.
The 54th-ranked staff on the planet surprised Italy, ranked sixteenth by FIFA, with a 3-2 victory over the Italians in Wednesday’s Group G finale. South Africa received with a stoppage-time objective by Thembi Kgatlana.
South Africa was ecstatic as gamers screamed and danced and mentioned grateful prayers within the hallway resulting in their locker room.
The Italians left in tears and unable to elucidate the upset.
“I actually don’t know,” goalkeeper Francesca Durante mentioned after the match. “I don’t know what didn’t work.”
Practically each participant took the blame for the early elimination, even Arianna Caruso, who scored each of Italy’s targets.
“I don’t suppose I can discover the best phrases on this second,” Caruso mentioned. “I’m not completely satisfied as a result of we scored two targets and we didn’t do something.”
Italy’s issues towards South Africa started earlier than Wednesday evening’s sport: a brutal 4-0 loss to Sweden was maybe too tough to beat, even with a spot within the spherical of 16 at stake.
“I’m positive that the sport towards Sweden and all of the targets we conceded affected our belief, our confidence, our peace of thoughts,” mentioned Italy coach Milena Bertolini. “I believe it’s clear that at present the emotional facet was truly an necessary issue.”
Italy’s Cristiana Girelli cries after dropping the Girls’s World Cup Group G match towards South Africa in Wellington, New Zealand, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. (AP Picture/Alessandra Tarantino)
The Italians had been slowed by greater than their feelings.
An personal objective from Benedetta Orsi got here from poor communication within the backfield and allowed South Africa to regain momentum after falling down by a objective. Then Italy’s incapacity to shut out the match allowed Kgatlana to take the sport away after a pleasant cross from Hildah Magaia.
Put just by Bertolini: “I believe that South Africa performed higher than us and deserved to win.”
It was Italy’s fourth Girls’s World Cup, the place it has twice made the quarterfinals, most not too long ago in 2019.
The loss doesn’t destroy the way forward for Italian girls’s soccer, although. The Italians fielded 16-year-old Guiliana Dragoni, one of many event’s youngest stars, in all three of their matches.
In order tough because the loss was, Italian girls’s soccer might be set for a rebuild.
“It’s a fig that’s arduous to swallow,” Bertolini mentioned. “I consider that so far as the way forward for Italian feminine soccer is anxious, I believe we do have a future.”
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