{"id":2729,"date":"2017-10-04T15:49:41","date_gmt":"2017-10-04T10:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.smartworld.asia\/?p=2729"},"modified":"2017-10-05T12:27:23","modified_gmt":"2017-10-05T06:57:23","slug":"italy-immobilised-world-cup-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/italy-immobilised-world-cup-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy immobilised for World cup 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2731\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2731\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2731\" src=\"https:\/\/sports.smartworld.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ital-relying-2018-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Italy relying on Ciro Immobile to reach 2018 World Cup\" width=\"710\" height=\"473\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ital-relying-2018-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ital-relying-2018-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ital-relying-2018-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ital-relying-2018-696x463.jpg 696w, https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ital-relying-2018-1068x710.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ital-relying-2018-632x420.jpg 632w, https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/ital-relying-2018.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 710px) 100vw, 710px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2731\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Italy relying on Ciro Immobile to reach 2018 World Cup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Italy were outclassed by Spain in a demoralising 3-0 World Cup qualifying defeat in Madrid which leaves the four-time champions facing a precarious play-off in November to reach Russia.<\/strong><br \/>\n&#8220;Little Italy, Russian roulette,&#8221; the newspaper continued on its inside pages as Azzurri trailed not only in fitness but quality.<br \/>\nCoach Giampiero Ventura says &#8220;it would be a catastrophe&#8221; if injury-hit Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup with key qualifiers looming against Macedonia and Albania.<br \/>\nVentura confirmed that Roma captain Daniele De Rossi was out against Macedonia with a knee injury with Inter Milan midfielder Roberto Gagliardini called up in his place.<\/p>\n<p>Lorenzo Pellegrini, Marco Verratti and Andrea Belotti have already been sidelined with niggling problems. Italy should easily make the playoffs as it needs just one point from its final two qualifying matches against Macedonia on Friday and Albania three days later to secure second spot.<br \/>\n<em>\u201cUnfortunately every so often it happens that one area is affected \u2026 we have to try to stay positive,\u201d<\/em> said Parolo, who is now the only experienced midfielder left in the Italy squad.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cOur aim remains to improve and qualify,\u201d he added. \u201cGetting to the World Cup is an obligation for us.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\nImmobile has scored in all but two of Lazio\u2019s matches this season in all competitions and also netted the winner in Italy\u2019s 1-0 victory over Israel last month.<br \/>\n\u201cCiro is in great form, he\u2019s strong, sees the goal really clearly,\u201d Parolo said. \u201cHe\u2019s found full confidence at Lazio, he feels appreciated by everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Italy were outclassed by Spain in a demoralising 3-0 World Cup qualifying defeat in Madrid which leaves the four-time champions facing a precarious play-off in November to reach Russia. &#8220;Little Italy, Russian roulette,&#8221; the newspaper continued on its inside pages as Azzurri trailed not only in fitness but quality. Coach Giampiero Ventura says &#8220;it would &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1345],"tags":[3148,2167,1729,3147],"class_list":["post-2729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news","category-football-news","tag-football-world-cup","tag-italy","tag-spain","tag-world-cup-2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}