“Nothing but respect between us all” - Mason Mount offers support to Chelsea teammate Jorginho following Italy’s World Cup elimination
Mason Mount commiserated with his Chelsea teammate Jorginho as Italy failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup after losing 1-0 to North Macedonia in the playoffs.
Italy has been knocked out of 2022 World Cup Qualifying.
North Macedonia pull off the massive upset and send home the 2020 Euro champs.
The absolute scenes. @StoolFootball
https://t.co/vheRvkgwbR
Although they won UEFA Euro 2020, Jorginho and Italy failed to book themselves a place in the World Cup courtesy of a last-minute goal from North Macedonia's Aleksandar Trajkovski in the 92nd minute.
Notably, this is the first time that Italy have failed to qualify for two consecutive World Cups in the history of the competition, after they failed to qualify in 2018 as well.
Italy not being at the 2018 WC and then winning the Euros and then not being at the 2022 World Cup is just a really nuts series of events tbh.
Following Italy's defeat against North Macedonia, Jorginho's Chelsea teammate Mason Mount commiserated with him and offered words of support. Speaking to the club's website after England's 2-1 friendly win against Switzerland, Mount said:
"I always mention that Jorgi is the joker in the group. But when it comes to big games against us, there is nothing but respect between us all.
"When you’re at that level and you’re playing in finals, football is on the line and there is passion that goes into the game.
"The hunger to win for your country means so much, so there would never be a joke about it afterwards. It’s all about respect. If you look at how far both teams (England and Italy) had to come to get that opportunity in the (Euro 2020) final, it was a massive amount of work," he added.
Mount further added that he won't joke about it because he understands how disappointing it is.
"So, no, I won’t be giving him jokes or stick about what’s happened with Italy. It’s hard for me to see a player I have played with for the last three years go through something like that," Mount said.
"You know how much hard work it takes to get into that position, so to just fall short is so disappointing."
Mount also revealed that he reached out to Jorginho soon after their loss. He said:
"I actually sent him a little message and said, 'keep your head up, you’ve had an amazing season and hopefully we can go on this season to win some more things together'."
Chelsea set to face Brentford this weekend as Premier League top-four battle heats up
Chelsea look to be in a very comfortable position to finish in the top four of the Premier League season as they currently sit third with a five-point lead over fourth-placed Arsenal.
The ten remaining matches will be extremely important for the Blues as they begin the final leg of the league season against Brentford this coming weekend. Although Chelsea have the advantage over the other teams in contention, the Blues do have a few challenging fixtures coming up, including matches against Arsenal and Manchester United, which could prove to be critical.