When Fabio Cannavaro held aloft the gold World Cup trophy at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in 2006, few could have imagined the pain football’s biggest event would inflict on Italy for the next twenty years.
In 2010, the Azzurri staged a dismal title defense, failing to win a single match in an embarrassing group stage exit. In 2014, it again failed to reach the knockout stages, being eliminated by a Uruguay goal shortly after Luis Suarez bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini.
As for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, the Italians didn’t even make it, as they were eliminated in the European play-offs, a total humiliation for a football-mad nation.
No wonder the country is on edge this week.
Italy are back in the World Cup play-offs and are one of 16 European teams vying for the continent’s four remaining spots for this summer’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
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The World Cup has never been so big, expanded to 48 countries, including 16 from Europe. And yet Italy has to enter through the back door, a bad look for a four-time world champion and a traditional hotbed for the sport.
Northern Ireland in Bergamo stands in the way of Italy in the semi-finals of the play-offs that take place across Europe on Thursday. If you win that – and the Azzurri are big favorites – they will have to beat Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina to advance to the World Cup.
Italy is undoubtedly the big story of the play-offs, but here are a few more things to look out for:
Crunch time for Sweden and Potter
It’s time for Graham Potter.
The former Chelsea and West Ham coach was hired by Sweden last year, initially on a short-term basis and with one task: to get the team to the World Cup.
That remains to be seen, but Potter has clearly done enough to impress the association, which last week gave him a contract until 2030.
It’s quite a show of support for Potter ahead of the play-offs, where Sweden face war-torn Ukraine on neutral ground in Valencia, Spain. The winner will receive Poland or Albania next week.
Unfortunately for Potter, he doesn’t have all his big names available with Premier League stars Alexander Isak and Dejan Kulusevski injured.
Exactly four years ago, Ukraine was unable to play the scheduled semi-final of the World Cup qualifying play-offs in Scotland due to unrest, just weeks after the full Russian military invasion.
Ukraine eventually won 3-1 in Glasgow in June 2022 and lost the play-off final in Wales four days later to a Gareth Bale goal.
Ukraine is back in the play-offs after four years of being unable to host matches on its own territory, which continues to be bombarded by Russia, which remains banned from international football.
Lewandowski’s last chance at a FIFA World Cup
It’s always dangerous to write off the careers of football’s best players – Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, is likely to go to the World Cup at the age of 41 – but this could be Robert Lewandowski’s last chance at a World Cup UD8XC.
The 37-year-old Barcelona forward had a short spell away from the Polish national team last year, making him unavailable after then-coach Michal Probierz stripped him of the captaincy. Probierz resigned after Poland lost to Finland without Lewandowski, who promptly returned to the side under new coach Jan Urban in August.
Poland’s all-time top scorer was also given the captain’s armband again.
Lewandowski recently wore a protective mask on his face during matches after suffering a fractured left eye socket.
Kosovo aims for first World Cup appearances
Kosovo is two games away from the World Cup, less than a decade since the national team disappeared from the international football family.
It was in May 2016 that Kosovo and Gibraltar were voted into FIFA as the 210th and 211th member federations. That was eight years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, a move that remains unrecognized by dozens of United Nations member states.
It also allowed players with family ties to Kosovo to sign up for the team. Valon Berisha is still playing for Kosovo, ten years after ending his 20-game career with Norway.
Now, in just its third attempt to qualify for the Men’s World Cup, Kosovo will be guided to the semi-finals of the European qualifying play-off in Slovakia by German coach Franco Foda on Thursday. That was a deserved second in a qualifying group won by Switzerland last year, finishing above Slovenia and Sweden.
It is the first meeting between the teams, as Slovakia is one of the five European Union member states that do not recognize Kosovo. Spain is another.
Published on March 25, 2026
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