Bonucci sorry for Italy’s dressing room with bottles, food and cigarette butts on floor after North Macedonia defeat
LEONARDO BONUCCI has apologised after Italy left their dressing room in a horrible state.
Videos circulated on social media of the mess that the Azzurri left behind following their shocking 1-0 defeat to North Macedonia.
Roberto Mancini's side were slammed in all quarters for their meek World Cup play-off semi-final exit at the hands of their unfancied opponents.
They received even more criticism after people saw the state of their dressing room left behind at Stadio Renzo Barbera in Palermo.
Bottles, food waste and even cigarette butts could be seen scattered around after the Italian team's departure.
Ahead of their friendly against Turkey, Bonucci addressed the mess in his pre-match press conference.
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He said: "It was a big mistake, next time, we’ll pay more attention.
"We were very disappointed and we didn’t think that these details make the difference sometimes.
"We’ll pay more attention in the next matches, we apologise."
The Azzurri's chief of communications Paolo Corbi added: "It’s an aspect that we underestimated and we’ve already apologised to Palermo Calcio.
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"We had to catch the flight for Coverciano and there was a huge disappointment even if, we must say, the state of the dressing room when we left was not exactly the one shown in the video. It was not all down to us."
Bitter over his side's failure to qualify for Qatar 2022, Bonucci slammed the play-off process.
He said: "It ended up being all decided in just one game, that's an absurd rule.
"We come here playing games at home and away and then it ends like this.
"There are teams selected in other confederations that have lost four or five games.
"And we were eliminated by a goal in the 92nd minute in our only defeat. This new formula is a real madness."
Bonucci, 34, may have been referencing Uruguay and Ecuador - who have both qualified despite losing six qualifiers.
