Italy’s World Cup play-off draw brings back bad memories

Every supporter of the Azzurri will hope their third consecutive shot at a World Cup play-off does not go as badly as the previous two. Giancarlo Rinaldi fears the omens from history could be bad.

Ask any self-respecting Italian grandfather the team he would have liked to avoid in the World Cup play-off draw and the answer would undoubtedly have been Northern Ireland. They might have been the lowest-ranked side in pot four, but their name is still enough to send a shiver down the spine of those who have been following La Nazionale for seven decades or more. Any Nonno worth his salt can recall the heartache of their youth when Belfast was the burial ground for dreams of making it to Sweden in 1958.

Memories of play-off defeats to North Macedonia and Sweden might be fresher in the mind but, for generations, that disaster at Windsor Park was the only time Italy had failed to make it to a World Cup. It was, at the time, seen as an unimaginable low point for the Azzurri and an embarrassment not to be repeated. Heaven knows what they would have made of the prospect of missing out on three global competitions in a row.

While not a direct play-off game, Alfredo Foni’s side only needed a draw in Northern Ireland to qualify but, instead, went down to defeat, which sent their opponents through. Critics at the time lambasted the usually cautious coach for picking a surprisingly attacking side when he was under no obligation to win. There were also questions raised about the use of Oriundi – Italians born overseas – which appeared to backfire. More than anything though, they really should have known what to expect, as they had already met each other not long before.

The previous fixture – dubbed the Battle of Belfast – was played as a friendly due to the referee being stuck in fog. An ill-tempered affair, it should have prepared Foni and his troops for the physical encounter which lay in store. Instead, they were caught cold and slipped two goals behind and – although they would pull one back – ended the match with 10 men and an unwanted place in history as the first Italian national team to fail to make it to a World Cup.

Many years have passed, of course, but there are still echoes of history in what awaits the Azzurri this time around. Northern Ireland will, just as they did 67 years ago, throw everything they have at Rino Gattuso’s side. If he gets his approach and team selection as badly wrong as his predecessor did when travelling to Belfast then his reign as Italy boss could prove a very short one indeed.

If there is comfort in history, however, it is in the fact that this remains the only time that Club Italia has suffered defeat against this particular opponent. With home advantage, they should be confident of progress to at least the final play-off game. However, their form has been so fragile of late that very little can be taken for granted.

And what about what awaits them if they do make it to a second knockout tie? We know this will be an away game and one option would be a trip to Cardiff. Wales have a slightly better record against Italy than Northern Ireland do but it still only amounts to a couple of victories in 10 attempts. Nonetheless, they would represent a considerable challenge for the boys in blue with morale at its current levels. Gattuso himself would have loved to go into the dragon’s lair to try to secure a victory as a player – he will have to hope, if it ends up that way, that his team is similarly combative.

The other possibility would be a journey to face Bosnia and Herzegovina – another team to only have beaten Italy once in their history. They would be a slightly more familiar challenge with a number of their players – most notably Edin Dzeko – currently plying their trade in the Bel Paese. Still, they would relish the prospect of dumping the Azzurri out of the competition to make it to a World Cup for the second time in their history after making it there in 2014.

The truth, of course, is that despite the Italian national team’s impressive record against all these sides in the past they are currently a shadow of the outfit they once were. Slip-ups against unfancied opponents have become the order of the day as they struggle to live up to the reputation of a nation which has lifted the planet’s most famous international crown on no fewer than four occasions. Another summer in the sporting wilderness feels unthinkable.

That is the battle facing Gattuso between now and March. Can he bring back the confidence and composure to the Italy set-up that it needs to brush aside the obstacles in his path? Has he got the players capable of standing up to such high-pressure circumstances? Or will this generation be another one telling its grandchildren about what went wrong on the way to the USA, Canada and Mexico in 2026?