Sandro Tonali set to miss Italy World Cup group qualifier | OneFootball

It looks like Sandro Tonali is going to miss this World Cup group qualifying match for Italy.

Gennaro Gattuso revealing the news on Monday.

Italy have their final two World Cup group matches coming up.

They play Moldova away on Thursday and then are home to Norway on Sunday.

Their qualifying group sees Norway top with 18 points, then Italy on 15 points, Israel third on nine points but they have only one game remaining and can’t catch Italy.

Gattuso has explained that whilst Sandro Tonali will likely start against Moldova, he will almost certainly miss the Norway match.

The reason for this is that the Newcastle United midfielder is one yellow card away from a suspension.

With Norway surely set to beat Estonia on Thursday, it means effectively Italy can’t catch the Norwegians even if winning against Moldova, which they will. The reason is that currently Norway are +26 on goal difference and Italy +10, so the Italians surely ending up in second place.

If Sandro Tonali was booked against Moldova on Thursday, he would be ruled out of the Norway game. If though Tonali was booked against Norway, he would be missing when the World Cup semi-final play-offs come around in March 2026, which Italy will feature in if ending up second in the group.

Only if Norway slip up against Estonia would Sandro Tonali be considered for the Norway game.

During his press conference earlier today, Gattuso said:

“I spoke to Sandro Tonali 10 days ago.

“Surely we can’t afford to miss an important player like him for the semi-finals [in March 2026].

“I think it is difficult that he will play against Norway.”

With Sandro Tonali maybe not looking one hundred per cent on Sunday against Brentford, Newcastle fans will be more than happy if the key NUFC midfielder has this shift off against Norway. A massive match a week on Saturday, when Newcastle United host Man City.