Bonucci fuming with 'absurd' World Cup qualifying format after Italy's shock defeat

The Italians failed to qualify for a second successive World Cup as they were beaten 1-0 at home to North Macedonia, who are now 90 minutes away from the finals but must beat Portugal to qualify.

Italy's conquerors could qualify for the World Cup for the first time ever in their game against Portugal at the Estadio Do Dragao in Porto on Tuesday evening.

As if this wasn't a big enough prize, Blagoja Milevski's squad have also been promised a €500,000 (£421,000) bonus from the country's Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski should they seal victory against Cristiano Ronaldo and co.

The European champions ended up in the play-offs following draws with Bulgaria, Switzerland and Northern Ireland in their group, finishing second behind the Swiss.

However, Bonucci, who poked fun at England after the Euro 2020 final, has taken to openly criticising the play-off system instead.

"We played it all in a one-off match, it's an absurd system," the 34-year-old said.

"Unfortunately, that's the way it went, but it's a crazy decision.

"You have to play a single game in which anything can happen as we have seen.

"There are teams that qualified after losing four or five games, we are at home after losing only one in the 92nd minute. It is truly madness.

"Clearly the regulation is not an alibi or an excuse, we certainly had to do better. But from here we have to take inspiration to find the way back to where we were.

"There were many reflections. Certainly after Euro 2020 we got a bit lost. This compromised our path to the World Cup."

Despite his frustration after missing what was likely to be his final opportunity to play in the competition, Bonucci remained optimistic about the future of Italian football.

"The 48 hours after the elimination were really hard, we found ourselves with our mouths closed and in silence at lunch and in the changing rooms.

"We tried to play it down with the younger players, saying that they will have other opportunities, then Mancini spoke and we reconnected to the present and the future.

"We have to start again to rebuild, the bases to make a great ascent are there."

Updates on Portugal vs North Macedonia will be live on talkSPORT throughout, while talkSPORT.com will be running a live blog for all the action.