After the elimination, Italy receives hopeful news

But Article 7 of FIFA's official regulation leaves open a fine thread of hope, and Italians must now begin to pray and nail the last hope, to avoid a nationwide tragedy, which Italy also estimates a calculated economic damage of about 1 billion euros.

At this point the regulation is referring to just a possible requalification of one of the eliminated representatives, in case one of the 32 qualified representatives withdraws, or is excluded from the competition.

If one of these two situations is verified, then the highest football institution on the planet could decide to replace the retired, or disfellowshipped, team with another team.

And Italy, in the quality of the best classified team in second place in the group phase, could be the choice, adding to the tournament's computer.

At the moment, with just a few months away from the World Russia 2018, it is difficult to assume an exception, or a withdrawal, from a team of already qualified representatives to the 2018 World.

Normally, there are nations in which the political situation is very troubled, like South Korea, Nigeria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Egypt, etc. But the odds are minimal anyway.

Presidents of the exception and sensational requalifications are not missing in football history, even in modern sports, after the 1990s. The most electrifying case is that of Yugoslavia in the time of the European in 1992.

Because of the Balkan war outbreak, the Yugoslav representative was expelled from the largest continental entity. Instead of the former Yugoslavia, Denmark was re-qualified, which, as a surprise, later shocked Europe, by winning the event.