Leonardo Bonucci has no doubt Italy will recover from their World Cup qualifying humiliation to be a major power once again, pointing out they produced a similar response not so long ago.
Italy were incredibly defeated 1-0 by North Macedonia in Thursday s Qatar 2022 qualifying play-off semi-final, with Aleksandar Trajkovski s stoppage-time winner stunning world football.
Roberto Mancini s men had dominated the match, but Trajkovski s speculative long-range effort left Azzurri players and coaching staff looking dismayed.
It marked a monumental change in fortunes from last year when a largely unfancied Italy side won Euro 2020, which was seen a huge achievement given their absence from Russia 2018.
As such, this will be the first time in World Cup history Italy have missed consecutive tournaments, with their failure to reach the 2018 edition instigating something of a rebuild of the senior set-up.
Mancini has seemingly escaped much of the criticism, with many fans of the opinion he overachieved significantly when guiding them to European Championship success last year, and Bonucci appears to be confident Italy will respond swiftly and efficiently.
