Haaland stars as Norway thrash Israel 5-0, Italy’s top spot hopes fading | OneFootball

Haaland hurricane strikes Israel. The Manchester City striker scores a hat-trick in the qualifier: Norway are increasingly on top. Now the goal-difference gap is also growing compared to Gattuso’s Italy. Even a hoped-for win in the return match might not be enough.

Norway increasingly first: Israel beaten 5-0

While waiting for Estonia–Italy, kicking off shortly, Group I of World Cup qualifying continues to have an undisputed leader: Erling Haaland’s Norway. The Scandinavians, who won the reverse fixture with a resounding 3-0, are dominating the group, taking first place by banging in goals. For Italy it would be crucial to claim top spot, to banish the play-off nightmare that hasn’t smiled on the Azzurri in recent years. But with such a gap between the two national teams, even level on points Norway would come out on top.

Against Israel, who in the previous match gave the Azzurri a hard time, coming back multiple times before Italy edged a chaotic 5-4, Solbakken’s boys won 5-0, further boosting their goal difference. The undisputed star was Haaland, who netted a hat-trick, while also missing two penalties. In addition to the City striker’s three goals, the result was padded by two own goals from Israeli players—this time punished by goals into their own net, unlike the game against Italy when own goals by Bastoni and Locatelli helped Israel.

For Gattuso’s men, currently with two games in hand on Norway, the only option is to win every match, scoring as many goals as possible, and hope for another slip from their rivals.

Italy’s intention is undoubtedly to qualify for the next World Cup, given that the last one they played was in 2014, which ended in the disappointment of a group-stage elimination, surprisingly, against England.

Francesco Landi

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