With the 2026 World Cup approaching and the group stage of the European World Cup qualifiers drawing to a close, there's a very real chance that Italy might fail to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup after missing out on first place in Group I and thus direct qualification for next year's showpiece in North America after a one-sided 4-1 loss against Norway.
Italy actually opened the scoring in the 11th minute after an error from Norwegian full-back Julian Ryerson put Federico Dimarco in position to set up his Inter Milan teammate Francesco Pio Esposito. Esposito duly finished off the chance to put Italy a goal ahead; however, that would be as far as the home side would get.
In the second half, Norway put the match to rest with an avalanche of goals. It started with winger Antonio Nusa's equalizer in the 63rd minute before - just as everyone expected - Erling Haaland took over. The Manchester City superstar proceeded to leave absolutely no doubt about the result with two goals in a one-minute span to clinch Norway's World Cup qualification. A stoppage-time goal scored by substitute Jørgen Strand Larsen added the exclamation point to the victory.
For Norway, the victory meant that they would advance to the World Cup for the first time since 1998 and only the fourth time in the country's history. As for Italy, they will now have to wait to find out who their opponents will be in the upcoming playoff rounds which will decide the last teams to secure World Cup qualification - and the way things are going, it wouldn't even be surprising to see them once again miss out.
As of right now, most of the teams who would find themselves in the playoffs would fancy their chances against an Italy team who made heavy weather of what should've been a relatively easy set of opponents in the group stage. It also needs to be kept in mind that Italy are likely to have something of a mental block by this point as it was in the playoffs where Italy were eliminated in both of the last two World Cup qualification campaigns - by Sweden for the 2018 World Cup and by North Macedonia for 2022.
The mid-campaign decision to fire previous head coach Luciano Spalletti and replace him with Gennaro Gattuso has now gone exactly how the naysayers expected it to. Despite winning all his prior matches at the helm, Gattuso had barely faced any true competition as all of those were against vastly inferior sides. Against Norway, however, Gattuso's Italy team were completely outclassed in every way. As he has been multiple times over the course of his coaching career, Gattuso looked completely out of his depth. It's certainly possible that if he isn't replaced before the playoffs in March, Italy won't make it to the World Cup once again.
The entire team looked disjointed and out of sync. Many of Norway's main goalscoring opportunities, including one of their goals, came as the result of a misplay on the part of the Italian defense. Up front, Italy had multiple significant chances to extend the lead in the first half following Esposito's opening goal with wingers Dimarco and Matteo Politano being the main culprits.
With the exception of Euro 2012 and 2020, Italy have seen almost no success since winning the World Cup almost two decades ago. Even if they somehow make it through the upcoming playoff round, it's a near-certainty that they will be knocked out of the World Cup in the opening round - an outcome which would extend their streak of failing to advance from the opening round to at least 24 years. That's a figure which would've seemed unthinkable when Fabio Cannavaro hoisted the trophy at the Olympiastadion back in 2006.
The Italian national team today is a mere shadow of their glory days - and this latest result further drives this point across. The road ahead doesn't look the least bit promising.
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