World Cup 2026, Italy face play-offs: ghosts of the past haunt Zurich draw | OneFootball

With the conclusion of the European group stage for the 2026 World Cup, Italy is forced to enter the most delicate and anxiety-inducing phase of its qualification campaign. On Thursday, November 20, in Zurich, a far-from-trivial draw will outline the path that will lead the last four European teams to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For the national team led by Gennaro Gattuso, who finished second in their group, this represents yet another crossroads in recent history: once again forced into the playoffs, once again forced to confront the ghosts of a troubled decade.

Italy in the playoffs, problems ahead: the specter of the past looms over the Azzurri

The only bright spot is the certainty of being seeded in the semifinals, which will guarantee the Azzurri the advantage of playing the first match at home. But fate, once again, has a cruel irony: three of the four possible semifinal opponents hold a prominent place in the history of Italy’s most painful eliminations. The list of potential fourth-tier rivals is a true journey through the darkest moments of our football: Romania, Northern Ireland, Sweden, North Macedonia.

Northern Ireland brings back memories of the first real “black hole” in Italian football: the 2-1 defeat in Belfast in 1958, a wound that sporting memory continues to pass down as a foundational nightmare. Sweden, on the other hand, recalls 2017, the 0-0 at San Siro that marked the end of the Ventura era and Italy’s failure to qualify for Russia 2018, a scar that remains open. The most recent and painful blow bears the name of North Macedonia: Trajkovski’s right-footed shot in the 93rd minute in Palermo, March 2022, which eliminated the reigning European champions from a second consecutive World Cup.

While Germany, Switzerland, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Belgium, England, and Croatia have already secured their World Cup tickets, Italy starts again from the gray area of the playoffs, a land that in recent years has become hostile to our football. If the Azzurri manage to overcome the semifinal, the final act will be even more treacherous. Denmark, Turkey, and Ukraine are the other seeded teams that cannot face Italy in the first round. The potential final opponent will emerge from a crossover semifinal between second and third-tier teams (Poland, Wales, Czech Republic, Slovakia vs. Albania, Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo). The biggest problem is that for the final, there will be no protection guaranteed by home advantage: the decisive match could be anywhere. And in a playoff, “anywhere” often weighs like a stone on qualification ambitions. Italy has been warned: in Zurich, opponents will be drawn, but the wounds of the past will also be reopened.

Andrea Alati

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.