BERGAMO, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 05: Players of Italy during the National Anthem during the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier match between Italy and Estonia at Stadio di Bergamo on September 05, 2025 in Bergamo, Italy. (Photo by Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images)
Italy can hardly complain about their luck after the World Cup play-off and group stage draws, but they must now cope with the pressure and earn their place at the tournament on the pitch.
Italy learned their World Cup group stage opponents on Thursday, even before having the certainty of being qualified for the tournament.
The Azzurri will face Northern Ireland in the World Cup play-off semi-final on March 26, 2026, and, if they progress to the Final, they’ll visit Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Final on March 31.
Italy’s opponents in World Cup play-off
One of these four teams will be in Group B at the World Cup, alongside Qatar, Switzerland and host country Canada.
Surely, the Azzurri have not been unlucky in their latest draws. Northern Ireland were the lowest-ranked (69th) among the possible play-off semi-final opponents, and La Nazionale is technically superior to both Wales and Bosnia and Herzegovina, even if the potential play-off final will be played away in one of these two countries.
Even the World Cup group stage draw treated the Azzurri fairly well, especially considering that Gennaro Gattuso’s men could have ended up in Group C with Brazil, Morocco and Scotland, in Group E with Germany, Cote D’Ivoire and Ecuador or Group F with the Netherlands, Japan and Tunisia.
All in all, the Azzurri can’t complain about their World Cup pathway, but now the tough part comes.
Italy’s biggest enemy will surely be the inevitable pressure around the team after disappointments in 2018 and 2022.
Milan midfielder Samuele Ricci showed the right attitude in his latest interview with Tuttosport, saying that the national team must not think about what happened in the past.
After all, when Italy first failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2018, most of the players in today’s squad weren’t even 18.
We’ve heard so many times that Italy don’t have a big star who can win games single-handedly. What we don’t hear so often is that the team is filled with top-level footballers who play in some of the best clubs in Italy and England.
Gigio Donnarumma and Riccardo Calafiori fight for the Premier League title this term, and Sandro Tonali is often mentioned as one of the best midfielders in the English league. Alessandro Bastoni, Federico Dimarco and Nicolò Barella have played two Champions League Finals in the last three years.
There are no Tottis or Del Pieros, but the talent is there, and it’s enough to go to the World Cup for the first time in 12 years.
Italy’s World Cup fiascos in 2010 and 2014
Now, Italy players must only focus on themselves and become aware that they are up to the task. The pitch must do the talking, regardless of how good the draws have been.
Don’t forget it was North Macedonia who eliminated the Azzurri from the World Cup play-off semifinal four years ago. We were lucky even back then, even if Portugal were awaiting in the Final, but it wasn’t enough.
Even in 2010, when the Azzurri played the World Cup in South Africa as the defending champions, they were eliminated in a group with Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand, collecting just two points in three games.
Four years later, in the 2014 World Cup, the group was just slightly tougher with Costa Rica, Uruguay and England.
The Azzurri opened with a victory over the Three Lions, but that would remain their only win of the competition, and Mario Balotelli’s second-half strike still stands as Italy’s most recent World Cup goal.
They went on to lose 1-0 to both Costa Rica and Uruguay. That infamous meeting with La Celeste, remembered for Luis Suarez’s bite on Giorgio Chiellini, remains the last World Cup match Italy have played to date.
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