🇮🇹 Italy, believe! Northern Ireland changes everything, here's why 💪

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·26 March 2026

🇮🇹 Italy, believe! Northern Ireland changes everything, here's why 💪

Match day for Gennaro Gattuso’s Italy national team, who tonight at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo against Northern Ireland want to wipe away the memories of the last two playoffs.

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Still fresh in the minds of the players — and really of every Italian — is the elimination at the hands of North Macedonia, who in 2022 won at Palermo’s Barbera and plunged us back into the sporting nightmare we had experienced four years earlier at San Siro against Sweden.

A lot of time has passed since then, yet we find ourselves in the same situation, having to hope we can secure qualification that, until 2017, we always took for granted. There are plenty of reasons, however, to look at tomorrow night’s match with optimism.

💪 Italy, believe because...

First of all, the Azzurri are stronger. Of the possible opponents in this playoff, Italy have definitely drawn the easier one. Tonight we face a team ranked 69th in the FIFA rankings, whose best player — Liverpool full-back Conor Bradley — is injured;
After the two huge disappointments of the past, we can rule out even the slightest risk of underestimating the opponent. Italy go into the Bergamo match aware that they are no longer a powerhouse and therefore that they must earn qualification the hard way. Given the previous results, that’s probably for the best;
We like the squad picked by Gattuso. It’s true, there has been debate over a couple of omissions, but after years in the dark, we once again have three forwards who can really excite us. Kean and Retegui have shown they work brilliantly together, while Pio Esposito is ready to take off. And then, if we look behind them at the individuals, there is no shortage of quality: Donnarumma, Tonali and Calafiori are among the best players in the Premier League; Bastoni, Dimarco and Barella — despite some fair criticism — are a well-drilled trio, with the wing-back enjoying a dream individual season; Locatelli and Cambiaso, meanwhile, have been revitalised by the Spalletti treatment.
The choice of stadium, which the head coach confirmed he made personally, takes a lot of pressure off a group that by now seemed to suffer under the weight of playing at San Siro. Gattuso opted for the Gewiss, which in recent years has been the engine of Gasperini’s Atalanta. Whether it was the right choice or not, we will only find out tomorrow. Thinking about the psychological factor, though, it is hard to see it as a mistake.

All in all, everything suggests this could finally be the right time. Missing out on the biggest appointment for the third straight time would be unforgivable, and the head coach knows it. For him too, with his career at a difficult point before the call from the FIGC, the next five days are crucial.

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

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