World Cup preview: Italy may change its formation again, Norway can maintain top spot without losing 9 goals
6686 Sports News on November 16th, Beijing time at 3:45 on the 17th, in the 8th round of Group I of the European Qualifying Tournament of the World Cup, Italy will play the home team against Norway.
Situation of this group
In Group I, Norway currently ranks first with 21 points, Italy ranks second with 18 points, Israel (9 points), Estonia (4), and Moldova (1) have all lost hope of competing for the top two.
Final round situation: If Italy can defeat Norway by 9 goals or more, it will win the first place. Otherwise, Norway will advance to the World Cup first and Italy can only participate in the play-offs.
Recent situation in Italy
As a four-time World Cup champion, Italy has missed the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The 60 million Apennine people are deeply ashamed. The Italian media also said that the team cannot afford to miss the World Cup for the third consecutive time.
However, in this World European Preliminaries, Italy had a bad start. After the Italian team lost 0-3 to Norway in the group's first away game on June 7, Spalletti decided to dismiss get out of class due to tremendous pressure, and Gattuso started coaching the team from the third round. The new coach led Italy to four consecutive victories, scoring 13 goals in four games, and discovered new talents like Esposito. However, as Norway did not lose points during the same period, Italy's situation failed to substantially improve.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy does not believe that the team can beat Norway by 9 goals and has begun preparations for the play-offs. Therefore, the team did not go all out to win the goal difference against Moldova in the last round. Gattuso made a major rotation in the last game and used a 442 formation. It is predicted that the team will return to 352 in this game. This is also strategic preparation and running-in for the play-offs.
Norway’s current situation
Since the new century, starting from the 2002 World Cup, Norway has failed to qualify for six consecutive World Cup qualifying rounds. The last time they participated in the main match was the 1998 World Cup in France. Now the Norwegian team has a chance to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 28 years, and the team is full of momentum.
Norway has been in excellent competitive form recently. Since November 2024, the team has remained unbeaten in the past 11 official games (2 UEFA Nations League games, 7 UEFA World Cup preliminaries, and 2 friendly matches), with 10 wins and 1 draw, and 44 goals scored in 11 games. In these 11 games, the team's top star Haaland scored 19 goals and provided 3 assists. Manchester City's top striker is far ahead and second in the Norwegian team's history scorer list.
Before the game, Norway coach Solbakken said at the press conference: "If we lose 0-9, we will miss the first place? Italy can't win 9-0. What kind of stupid question is this? 9-0, impossible! I can't believe it!"
Match history
The two teams have met 18 times in official competitions in history. Italy has 10 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses, scoring 22 goals and conceding 16 goals, and has the upper hand.
Injury situation
As for the Italian team, Keane and Cambiagi retired from the national team due to injuries after the last round. Spinazzola, Luca and others were not selected for this squad due to injuries. Calafioli and Tonali were injured and difficult to play. Norway's captain, Arsenal star Odegaard, is absent due to injury.
