Italy were dealt a 3-0 blow by Norway at the beginning of their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign on Friday night, which has already brought a genuine risk of missing out on direct qualification

Four-time FIFA World Cup winners Italy have failed to qualify for each of the last two editions of the tournament, while they have now lost successive qualifiers for the first time in their history

Spalletti insisted he wanted to “move forward” as national coach and that he had faith in his “project” after the defeat in Oslo.

Saturday’s papers claim that there is a ‘legitimate threat’ to Italy’s World Cup qualification chances, and that it is now realistic to ‘expect the worst of the worst’ after a 3-0 loss to