Italy 0 – 1 North Macedonia

At the time of writing, this is the least ‘retro’ of any results. And this one was put up a matter of hours after the game ending. I think for fairly obvious reasons. Back when qualifying for Russia (boo, hiss, etc.) 2018, the Italians had a bit of a torrid time in their group, nutsing it up by losing to Spain and drawing with the Macedonians (then without the ‘North’ element). Finishing up second, they faced Sweden in the playoffs and lost. Obviously that couldn’t happen again. And yet, here we are. This time it was a single leg affair and they were omitted from the tournament for the second time in a row. You could say this was the best result in North Macedonia’s histroy, but they also beat the Germans in their group. Strong showing all round.