Qatar World Cup 2022 play-offs: Jorginho trolled after Italy crashes out

It was a night that Italy's midfielder Jorginho would be 'haunted' by for perhaps the rest of his life. On Thursday, the Chelsea star cut a sorry figure at the end of Italy's shocking 0-1 defeat to North Macedonia and admitted that his nation paid the price for two of his unsuccessful penalty kicks against Switzerland during the World Cup qualifying campaign.

The Euro 2020 champions faced a crushing defeat in Palermo to bow out of their second consecutive World Cup, the first time in their history that has occurred.

Also read: Qatar World Cup 2022 playoffs: Italy knocked out, Portugal survives

Jorginho is considered one of the most assured spot-kick practitioners in the sport. However, he missed two crucial chances against Switzerland during the first round of qualifying, depriving Italy of two wins that would have sealed their World Cup 2022 berth.

"It hurts when I think about it because I do still think about it, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life," the Chelsea midfielder told RAI Sport after 

"Stepping up there twice and not being able to help your team and your country is something that I will carry with me forever, and it weighs on me. People say we need to lift our heads and carry on, but it's tough," Jorginho added.

Roberto Mancini's side was loudly booed off after a defeat which means Italy will have to wait until at least 2026 to see its national team at a World Cup. By then, it will have been 12 years since the Azzurri's last participation in the world's biggest football tournament after they also crashed out in the play-offs in 2017.

Astonishingly Italy will not go to the World Cup despite only losing twice since the start of 2019 to Spain in the Nations League last autumn and on Thursday.

Following this shocker, which made Italy the first reigning European champion to miss out on the World Cup since Greece in 2006, Jorginho admitted that it would take time for him to recover from this massive blow.

"It is hard to explain what happened. It hurts so much. I'll be honest, I am still incredulous. I don't think we lacked creativity, as we always dominated matches and created so many chances. Unfortunately, we were unable to finish them off," he stated.

"We played good football, we won the European Championship last summer, but unfortunately in the last few games, we made small errors and were unable to recover from them. They made the difference," Jorginho concluded.

After this shocking defeat, upset Azzuri fans took to Twitter, with several questioning if Jorginho even deserved to be considered for the Ballon d'Or 2021. Here's a look at what some of the fans said: