Italy vs Northern Ireland – Match preview and team news
Italy vs Northern Ireland – Match preview and team news Italy and Northern Ireland go head-to-head in a high-stakes 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying play-off semi-final in Bergamo on Thursday. Both sides are one win away from a play-off final that will decide a coveted ticket to North America for the 2026 World Cup. Italy vs Northern Ireland – Match preview and team news Date: Thursday, 26th March.
Kick-off: 7:45pm BST. Venue: New Balance Arena, Bergamo. Italy team news Italy are juggling several fitness concerns going into this playoff semi-final.
At the back, Napoli skipper Giovanni Di Lorenzo has been ruled out. Atalanta frontman Gianluca Scamacca is battling an adductor problem and Liverpool’s Federico Chiesa has already withdrawn from the squad. Bologna winger Nicolo Cambiaghi has been drafted in as his replacement.
Mateo Retegui, Moise Kean and the in-form Francesco Pio Esposito are all pushing for a starting berth. In midfield, Newcastle United’s Sandro Tonali will need to be carefully assessed before a final decision is made on his involvement but he is most likely to start. In some good news, Riccardo Calafiori has been passed fit after shaking off a minor issue picked up in Sunday’s EFL Cup final.
Gennaro Gattuso is reported to have pushed for the game to be moved away from San Siro to a more compact and intense setting in Bergamo, aiming to create a tighter atmosphere after a 4-1 home defeat to Norway drew a furious reaction from fans in Milan earlier in qualifying. Northern Ireland team news Dan Ballard is sidelined here due to a hamstring injury, although he has been named in O’Neill’s 28-man squad. Tom Atcheson, who works with Michael O’Neill at Blackburn, has been promoted from the Under-21s as cover.