Another moment when Italy failed to qualify for a FIFA World Cup

Italy won the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The 1xBet website for bets in Nigeria can be used to wager on all matches of those major competitions organized by FIFA.

However, the performances of the Azzurra in subsequent editions of the tournament were dismal. Obviously, things became even worse when the team failed to qualify for both the 2018 and 2022 editions of the competition.

However, the 2018 FIFA World Cup was not the first one that the Italian national squad missed. Prior to it, they also missed the 1958 edition of the tournament. The 1xBet Nigeria website can be used for bets in all editions of the FIFA World Cup whenever they are celebrated.

Of course, football from 1958 and 2018 is quite different. However, how Italy missed taking part in the tournament celebrated in Sweden is also worth remembering.

Twelve spots available

Back in 1958, the FIFA World Cup was a much smaller tournament than it currently is. Unlike the 32 spots for the 2022 edition of the 48 of the 2026 one, the 1958 championship had only twelve places. Currently all the live bets are on 1xBet, and they also feature matches from the always entertaining FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

The European qualifiers for the tournament had 27 teams in total. They were separated into nine groups of three teams each. The top team of each group qualified automatically to the tournament. Group 8 had the following teams:

• Northern Ireland;
• Italy;
• and Portugal.

Punters can find all the live bets, which are on 1xBet, and can be used to wager on those three squads. If the modern versions of those teams would share a qualifying group, probably most fans would agree that Portugal or Italy would lead the group. However, that’s not what happened.

A complete catastrophe

Italy began its qualifying campaign with a 1-0 win against Northern Ireland. However, in their second match, they were heavily defeated 3-0 by the Portuguese side. Portugal is another team featured at the http://1xbet.ng/en/line/football website, where punters can wager on all their matches.

Italy recovered by defeating 3-0 in the third match. The last contest was going to be played between Northern Ireland and the Italian team. Before the match Italy had 4 points (remember that victories only gave 2 points back then rather than 3). Also, Portugal, without any matches remaining had 3 points, and Northern Ireland also had 3.

This meant that a draw was enough for Italy to qualify for the 1958 FIFA World Cup. However, the Northern Irish team, whose matches are also available at the 1xBet website, had a few things to say. In an incredible match that took place on the 15th of January 1958 they defeated Italy 2-1, securing a place in the championship.