At first glance, Italy had a good international break.
In the first two games of Gennaro Gattuso in charge, the Azzurri beat the 5-0 Estonia, then won a remarkable match against Israel 5-4 with Sandro Tonali from Newcastle marking a last winner.
The result in Debrecen – The game was played in Hungary due to the current bombing of Gaza by Israel – pushed Italy over their opponents in the I.
The problems for Gattuso and Italy came elsewhere. The incredible 11-1 hammering of Norway Moldova means that Erling Haaland and Co, who played a game more, are six points from Italy with a difference in goals of +21, much better than Italy +5.
Thus, even a victory in Italy when the teams meet in November is unlikely to be sufficient to obtain first place.
This would push them into the play-offs and leave them in front of the potential nightmare to miss another World Cup.
Will Italy are missing a third successive World Cup?
The winning quadrules were absent in 2018 and 2022 and it would be unthinkable that such a passionate football nation fails again.
The Italian media resigned themselves to the perspective of the play-offs with Gazzetta dello Sport today publishing an analysis of the potential opponents of Italy assuming that they will not revise Norway.
Sweden, led by Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokerres, has already been identified as a danger while Serbia and Slovakia could also wait.
So how did it get to that? Why does Italy constantly fail on the international scene?
Our friends from the Italian football podcast had a say. Look at the integrated link above, then listen to the full version wherever you get your podcasts.
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