Giuseppe Belotti (left) defends possession against Spain.

Giampiero Ventura fears Italy could lose serious ground in the race to qualify for the 2018 World Cup if they are defeated by Macedonia in Skopje, this evening.

The Azzurri boss was not impressed with Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Spain, a match which saw Riccardo Montolivo suffer cruciate ligament damage while Albania took a two-point lead in Group G.

Victory against Igor Angelovski’s men at the Philip II Arena would help Italy keep in touch with their pacesetting neighbours from across the Adriatic, but a defeat could create a five-point gap.

Referring to the stalemate in Turin, Ventura told his pre-match press conference: “If I could go back in time to the Spain match I would certainly change a few things.

“However, we did only concede two shots on our goal.

“There were two red cards that should have been given to Spain. At 1-1 the team who had the potential to go on and win was definitely Italy.”

On tonight’s fixture, he added: “It will be a tough match. Macedonia have lost both of their matches but they’ve been unlucky. It will be a key match and possibly a decisive one.”

Ventura has deliberately rid himself of one striking option, Graziano Pelle, who was sent home after refusing to shake his coach’s hand when being withdrawn during the second half against Spain.

“I believe it was a lack of respect not only for me but for the whole group and the shirt. It was not acceptable,” said the former Torino boss, who is happy to have Marco Verratti back in contention.

“Verratti is a central figure in the national team. As long as there are no surprises he will play tomorrow – he wasn’t ready for the Spain game.

“I was really happy with Daniele De Rossi’s performance against them.

“Those two don’t really work together for technical reasons but you can never say never. I’ll definitely be making changes tomorrow (today).”

One possible inclusion is Marco Benassi, the Torino midfielder called up to replace Montolivo after the Milan captain was officially ruled out for six months yesterday.

Ventura would not confirm whether or not the 22-year-old would feature in Skopje, though.

He said: “People have been saying that I’m going to play all the youngsters but as soon as I do that everyone will start saying I’m taking too many risks.

“There’s an infinite number of good youngsters who are in, or who could be in this squad. It’s not a project you can complete inside three days.”

Macedonia have lost both their opening qualifiers by a 2-1 scoreline, first to Albania and then to Israel, and they have never played Italy before.