The Azzurri are aiming to end a 12-year exile from soccer’s grandest stage.
Four-time world champions Italy are desperate to bring their 12-year World Cup exile to an end on Tuesday night when they face Bosnia & Herzegovina in Zenica. The Azzurri have failed to qualify for the previous two tournaments, and rather embarrassingly crashed out of the playoffs to North Macedonia in 2022.
Thus, tension was rife in Bergamo when they faced Northern Ireland on Thursday, but Gennaro Gattuso’s side escaped its semifinal with a 2–0 win. Sandro Tonali’s finish just before the hour mark allowed a scarred nation to breathe a collective sigh of relief, but another night of unbearable angst awaits the Azzurri, this time in hostile territory.appearance-makers, failing to make it out of their group in 2014, but a courageous victory in Wales has emboldened its hopes of competing in North America this summer. It’d take something special, though, with these two nations 58 places apart in FIFA’s world rankings.Italy’s semifinal with Northern Ireland was available on free-to-air television in the United Kingdom, but that’s unfortunately not the case for this game. Instead,There’s bound to be strong interest in Italy’s quest to reach the 2026 World Cup in the United StatesThis summer’s tournament gets underway on June 11, with South Africa facing co-hosts Mexico in the opening game. The winner of Tuesday’s clash in Zenica will be placed into Group B alongside Canada, Qatar and Switzerland. Its first game is scheduled for June 12 against co-hosts Canada.James Cormack is a freelancer soccer writer for Sports Illustrated FC. An expert on Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, he follows Italian and German soccer, taking particular interest in the work of Antonio Conte & Julian Nagelsmann.
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