Italy is predicted to face many difficulties at the home of Bosnia Herzegovina in the do-or-die match to win a ticket to the 2026 World Cup. After defeating Wales, Edin Dzeko and his teammates showed danger, sounding the alarm bell for Azzurri. In the end, after more than 120 minutes of play, they were the team to return to the World Cup while Italy was not.
Three times watching the World Cup at home, Italy stopped before opponents considered weaker in the play-off round such as Sweden (2018), Northern Macedonia (2022) and Bosnia Herzegovina (2026). These are all "underestimated" Azzurri teams, but looking back at the strength of the blue shirt team, they are only rated higher than their opponents because they have won 4 World Cup trophies in the past.
In the group stage of the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign in Europe, Italy was tormented by Norway in both the first and second legs. In terms of reputation, Norway is far behind Italy in EURO and World Cup achievements, but if you look at the strength, this Northern European team is superior to Azzurri. Norway possesses many big stars, especially names like Erling Haaland or Martin Odegaard. Meanwhile, the person of the same class as this Italian duo is only goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
After the Nations League kicked off, European teams are more exposed and the gap in level is narrowing. The question now is, after Norway, how many "mid-range" teams like that will hinder Italy in the upcoming World Cup qualifying campaigns? The current format of the European qualifiers is very harsh when only the top team wins a direct ticket, if there is still instability as at present, Italy has no chance to lead any group. From there, the risk of having to play-offs is again present.
Italian football is too far from the last golden age at the World Cup playground, the 2006 gold cup. After that, they still participated in the tournament in 2010 and 2014, but both stopped in the group stage. Azzurri's last goal at the World Cup was Mario Balotelli's goal against England in 2014 in a 2-1 victory. And in the most recent match at this playground, Italy lost 0-1 to Uruguay. The most memorable memory in that match is the scandal of biting Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder from Luis Suarez.
12 years have passed and we have to wait at least 4 more years for Azzurri to have the opportunity to return to the World Cup. 16 years is a very long time, which can span 2-3 generations of Italian players.
In the starting lineup against Northern Ireland, no Italian player has ever participated in a World Cup. The current generation still has many young people, but no one dares to be sure that 4 years later they will still maintain their form to participate in the qualifying campaign.
Italy has had countless lessons in the past 3 defeats, all of which were humiliating defeats. Fans may blame Gattuso, Esposito, Bastoni,... after the recent match, but in the end, they are just victims of a football background that is going to the bottom of disappointment. If it weren't Gattuso, no coach would dare to guarantee to steer a squad of many "popular" players like the current one to reach the World Cup.
The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) appointed Gennaro Gattuso with only one goal, to return to the World Cup, and that mission failed. If Gattuso leaves the national team, who is the new person, what is the restructuring plan and what is the goal? No one can answer all these questions now, even the highest leaders of FIGC.
Italian football is going through a period of uncertainty and directionlessness, not only at the national team level. In this season's Champions League, the fact that only Serie A's Atalanta reached the round of 16 but then was easily destroyed by Bayern Munich is the clearest proof.
An entire football background is sliding down together at all levels. It is unclear whether Italy will improve in the next 4 years or not?
