Marco Verratti accepted the responsibility for Italy going 2-1 down in Macedonia, even if they eventually won 3-2. “It’s my fault.”
The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder misplaced a pass, gifting Ilija Nestorovski an equaliser, and 120 seconds later the hosts went 2-1 up.
Ciro Immobile’s brace late on secured a World Cup qualifying victory for the Azzurri.
Marco Verratti accepted the responsibility for Italy going 2-1 down in Macedonia, even if they eventually won 3-2. “It’s my fault.”
The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder misplaced a pass, gifting Ilija Nestorovski an equaliser, and 120 seconds later the hosts went 2-1 up.
Ciro Immobile’s brace late on secured a World Cup qualifying victory for the Azzurri.
“It was a real struggle and it was also my fault, because we were in control until my mistake. It gave Macedonia confidence and sapped it from us for a good 10 minutes,” Verratti told Rai Sport.
“After that black-out, we again proved that we are a great side. Unfortunately an incident can change the inertia of a game and my mistake completely transformed it.
“I take responsibility, I’m happy for the final result and will try not to make the same mistakes again.
“In the first half we faced a side that was defending with seven men behind the ball, we had our chances to go 2-0 up and it wasn’t easy once we found ourselves 2-1 down, but the final result is right because we deserved to win.”