🌍Italy: World Cup hopes, permutations and Nations League fears😱 | OneFootball

A win was needed to start the qualification path for the 2026 World Cup in the best possible way, but Italy fell badly in the crucial challenge in Norway and now the playoff nightmare is becoming more and more real.

The 3-0 against Haaland & Co. highlights the limitations of a National team that cannot afford to miss out on the World Cup for the third time in a row, but the feelings - seeing Spalletti's disconsolate face - are negative.

His Azzurri never take to the field and make the rhetorical question we are about to ask inevitable. What does Italy need to qualify for the World Cup directly? "Winning" is the simplest answer and may not be enough.

📊 THE STANDINGS OF GROUP I

The standings of Group I leave little room for interpretation: the disastrous knockout last night further consolidated Norway's first place and complicated Italy's qualification discourse from the start.

🏆 WHO GOES TO THE WORLD CUP?

The Azzurri don't have many alternatives: they will have to win and hope. Hope for a misstep by Haaland and company, and hope that our National team will quickly forget the setback and wake up. It's pointless to beat around the bush, because to qualify, you have to finish first in the group, and the 9-point gap from the top cannot leave you calm.

Europe will bring 16 teams to the next World Cup: 12 will snatch the pass by finishing first in their group. The other four will go through the playoffs, and Italy doesn't have a great relationship with these. The eliminations in November 2017 against Sweden and in March 2022 against North Macedonia are still an open wound, and missing out on qualification for the third time in a row is a horror just thinking about it.

👀 HOW DO YOU ACCESS THE PLAYOFFS?

But how do you access the playoffs? Nothing is taken for granted, because the 12 second-placed teams and the four best winners of the Nations League groups that have not yet qualified will go. Currently, this condition does not concern Spalletti's Italy, which is the best among the second-placed teams in the Nations League.

And if Italy were to finish in 3rd place in the World Cup Qualification group? It could only be drawn into the playoffs if at least 11 of the 14 Nations League group winners managed to qualify as first or second in the World Cup qualification groups.

In that case, a useful space would open up for Italy, recalling that the winners of the Nations League groups are: Spain, Germany, Portugal, France (Serie A); England, Norway, Wales, Czech Republic (Serie B); Romania, Sweden, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland (Serie C); Moldova, San Marino (Serie D).

💪 REACT AND HOPE: THIS IS HOW ITALY FLIES TO AMERICA

In short, scenarios that are already scary. Italy is drowning under the rain in Oslo and now has to take a conscience exam. The ghosts of the past cannot distract us from the final goal, but thinking back to those moments is already a nightmare.

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

📸 CORNELIUS POPPE