The Azzurri will play their last two World Cup qualifying group fixtures, facing Moldova in Chișinău on Thursday, 13 November, before ending their Group I campaign in Milan against Norway on Sunday, 16 November.

After a slow start last June in Oslo, Italy have since turned things around and recorded five consecutive wins, securing a play-off spot with two games to spare. There is still quiet hope of topping the group and earning a direct place at the World Cup, but to do so, the Azzurri would need to win both remaining games and drastically improve their goal difference over the current leaders (Norway +26, Italy +10). Alternatively, they could rely on Haaland and his teammates dropping points in their home match against Estonia on 13 November.

Coach Gennaro Gattuso has called up 27 players for the training camp that starts on Monday, 10 November, at the Coverciano National Training Centre. Cagliari goalkeeper Elia Caprile has been called up for the first time to the senior national team, while Alessandro Buongiorno and Samuele Ricci return to the Azzurri squad, after last representing Italy in March 2025 and June 2025, respectively. Gianluca Scamacca is also able to join the squad again. He had been previously called up by Gattuso in September but had to leave the camp before the match against Estonia in Bergamo because he hadn’t fully recovered from a muscular issue that he had come into Coverciano with. Nicolò Barella, who was booked on 14 October in the game against Israel, will miss the match against Moldova due to suspension. At the moment, there are three Azzurri on yellow card warnings: Andrea Cambiaso, Davide Frattesi, and Sandro Tonali.

SQUAD LIST

GOALKEEPERS: Elia Caprile (Cagliari), Marco Carnesecchi (Atalanta), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham);

DEFENDERS: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Raoul Bellanova (Atalanta), Alessandro Buongiorno (Napoli), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Matteo Gabbia (Milan), Gianluca Mancini (Roma);

MIDFIELDERS: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Davide Frattesi (Inter), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Samuele Ricci (Milan), Sandro Tonali (Newcastle);

FORWARDS: Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter), Moise Kean (Fiorentina), Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Atletico Madrid), Mateo Retegui (Al-Qadsiah), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio).

 

THE OPPONENTS. Six wins from six games. That’s Italy’s record against Moldova, who were also beaten 2-0 on 9 June in Reggio Emilia thanks to goals from Cambiaso and Raspadori. Italy has played Norway 18 times, with a record of ten victories, four draws, and four defeats, including a 3-0 defeat on 6 June in Oslo during the Azzurri’s opener of the qualifying group.

 

PREVIOUS GAMES IN CHISINAU AND MILAN. The Azzurri have played in Chisinau twice before, both in World Cup qualifiers. On 5 October 1996, Italy beat Moldova 3-1 with a brace from Fabrizio Ravanelli and a goal from Pierluigi Casiraghi, while on 8 September 2004 Alessandro Del Piero scored the only and deciding goal of the match against the hosts.

Italy, who played their very first game in history on 15 May 1910 at the Arena Civica, beating France 6-2, will return to play at the ‘Meazza’ eight months after losing to Germany in the first leg of the Nations League quarter-finals. Milan, the second city after Rome to host the most national team matches (63, with 39 wins, 19 draws, and 5 defeats), and the home of the Italian Football Federation between 1905 and 1911, has seen Italy play in four different stadiums: the Arena Civica, the Velodromo Sempione (demolished in 1928), the Milan Field in Viale Lombardia, and the San Siro Stadium, named Giuseppe Meazza on 3 March 1980.

In the capital of Lombardy, the Azzurri kept an almost-century-long unbeaten run, lasting exactly 96 years: from the 1-2 loss to Hungary in January 1925 (at Campo Milan, while the other loss to Hungary in 1911 came at Arena Civica) to the 1-2 defeat against Spain in October 2021 at the ‘Meazza’. Italy’s most prominent victory in Milan was the 9-4 win over France on 18 January 1920, while Austria is the opponent they have played most often (six times), followed by Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, and Portugal (five times each).

 

GROUP I SCHEDULE AND STANDINGS

13 November, 18:00: Norway vs. Estonia (Oslo)
13 November, 20:45: Moldova vs. ITALY (Chisinau)
16 November, 20:45: Israel vs. Moldova (Debrecen)
16 November, 20:45: ITALY vs. Norway (Milan)

Standings: Norway, 18 points (six games played), ITALY, 15 points (six), Israel, nine points (seven), Estonia four points (seven), Moldova, one point (six).