World European Preliminary-Italy VS Norway: No chance of fighting for first place, it would be a miracle to beat Norway s Gennaro Gattuso

Italy VS Norway, in this battle, for Italy, no matter whether they win, draw, or lose, it may not change their final destiny-get ready to play in the play-offs. Can

beat Norway at home? It should be possible! Can it beat Norway? It should be possible too. But it must win by at least 9 goals before Italy can directly qualify for the 2026 World Cup. Although Norway is not a traditional football powerhouse in Northern Europe, the men's national football team has never suffered a defeat with a net loss of 9 goals in more than 100 years of existence.

Italy VS Norway

Nature of the match: Round 10 of Group I of the European Group Stage of the World Cup

Match time: 3:45 on November 17th

Group I is currently moved Wei Wei ranked first with 21 points after winning 7 games, Italy ranked second with 18 points and 18 points from 7 games, 6 wins and 1 loss from 7 games, Israel ranked third with 9 points and 9 points from 7 games, Estonia ranked fourth with 4 points and 4 points from 8 games, 1 draw and 6 losses, and Moldova ranked last with 1 point and 1 point from 7 games, 1 draw and 6 losses.

Italy has 3 points less than Norway, and its goal difference is 17 goals less than Norway. If Italy can beat Norway by 9 goals at home in the final round, it will win the first place in the group with a goal difference advantage with the same points. Otherwise, it will have to be second in the group to play in the play-offs.

In the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Europe, Italy and Norway met in the group stage. The initial and subsequent mentalities of the two sides were definitely different.

For Italy, after being eliminated from two consecutive World Cup qualifiers, they finally got a good draw! In the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, Italy was in the same group as Spain, which had already shown signs of revival. It was normal that they did not win the first place in the group. In the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, they were in the same group as Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, and Lithuania. It can be said that they got the upper hand. There were no top European teams. However, Italy played with fire. In the 9th round, they played Switzerland at home. If they won, they would be ranked first in the group and advance to the World Cup. In the final stage, Jorginho missed a penalty kick and missed the buzzer beater.

This time, facing Norway, which has not entered the main draw of a major competition for more than 20 years, although there are famous players such as Haaland and Odegaard in the team, the results in the competition qualifiers in recent years have been average.

For Haaland and Odegaard, being in the same group as Italy, the top European team, they may only strive for second place in the group, and then look for opportunities in the play-offs. It is unknown when the first major tournament of their careers will come.

In a direct confrontation, after Norway defeated Italy 3:0 at home, the mentality of both sides was different. Before the final match is played again at another venue, Norway cannot lose points and must gain as much goal difference as possible to have any hope of retaining first place in the group; Italy is the same, it must not lose points and must surpass Norway on goal difference. If it defeats Norway at home in the final round, it will be able to counterattack and reach the top.

Norway made no mistakes, and Italy made no mistakes again, but Italy's ability to abuse food was obviously far inferior to Norway's, so much so that the goal difference gap was too wide before the final round.

Before the game, Italian football star Tardelli believed that if he could lead his team to defeat Norway and extend the winning streak to the sixth game, Gattuso would also have created a "little miracle."