In a game in Group I of the World Cup European Qualifiers, Norwegian team defeated Moldova 11-1 at home, and the Nordic magician Haaland contributed 5 goals and 2 assists in this game, staged a good show of five sons being promoted. This victory not only helped Norway defeat Moldova, but also played a bull from the air to send Italy into hell. The Italian team, which has won the World Cup four times, is likely to miss the 2026 World Cup 2018 and 2022 World Cup finals again, and missed the 2026 World Cup finals for three consecutive World Cup finals!
The Italian team once won the World Cup in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006, tied for second with Germany, second only to Brazil, and has emerged superstars such as Robert Baggio, Piero and Vieri, which are deeply loved by fans. But after winning the 2006 World Cup, as stars such as Buffon, Toti, Cannavaro and Pirlo successively withdrew from the national team, the Italian team's starlight dimmed a lot and the team's strength began to decline significantly.
In the 2010 World Cup group stage, Italy team was in the same group as Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand, and it ended up at the bottom of the group stage with a record of 2 draws and 1 loss, and failed to advance to the knockout stage. In the 2014 World Cup group stage, Italy team was in the same group as England, Uruguay and Costa Rica, and finally won the third place in the group with a record of 1 win and 2 losses. Once again, it failed to qualify from the group, and the only one that defeated was England.
However, failure to qualify from the group for two consecutive World Cups was not the lowest point for Italy, because they soon couldn't even enter the World Cup finals. In the 2018 World Cup European Qualifiers, Italy team was in the same group as Spain, Albania, Israel, North Macedonia and Liechtenstein, and eventually lost to Spain and won the second place in the group. However, in the subsequent play-offs, they lost to Sweden 0-1 in the two rounds, missing the World Cup finals for the first time since entering the 21st century.
In the 2022 World Cup European Qualifiers, Italy team was in the same group as Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria and Lithuania. Although they remained unbeaten in 8 games, they were still 2 points behind Switzerland and ranked second in the group and had to participate in the play-offs. But in the semi-finals of the playoffs, the Italian team lost 0-1 to North Macedonia and was eliminated, and they missed the two consecutive World Cup finals. This is the first time in the history of the Italian team! But this is probably not the worst record, because they are likely to miss the World Cup finals for the third time in a row!
The qualifying rules for the 2026 World Cup European Qualifiers are as follows: 54 teams are divided into 12 groups to compete for 16 qualifying places, of which 12 groups will directly qualify for the World Cup, and the remaining 4 places will be decided by the European play-offs. The European play-offs will be divided into 4 groups, each with 4 teams, a total of 16 teams, each with two semi-finals and one final, both of which are a single-game decisive victory system. The winners of the 4 finals will receive the last 4 World Cup places in the European region. This competition system is basically the same as the 2022 World Cup play-off system. The 16 play-off teams include 12 second-place teams in the group stage and 4 best-achieved top teams in the 24-25 season.
The Italian team was in the same group as Norway, Israel, Estonia and Moldova in this World Cup qualifier. In the first round, they went to challenge their number one opponent away to challenge their top opponents. As a result, they scored a goal by Norway's Haaland, Throt and Noosa each scored a goal, losing 0-3 to their opponents away, and encountered a black goal. If the Italian team wants to advance to the World Cup directly, they not only have to win all the subsequent games, but also get as many goals and goals as possible, so that they can beat their opponents through goals and goals and goals with Norway. In the next three games, Italy defeated Moldova 2-0, Estonia 5-0, and Israel 5-4. They won all three games and won 8 goals. After 4 games, Italy scored 9 points and the number of goals was 5.
However, Norway's more stable performance still made the Italian team's hope of direct access to the World Cup suddenly become slim. In addition to defeating Italy, Norway won all the games against Moldova, Israel and Estonia, especially in the home match against Moldova, 11-1. Haaland completed a hat-trick in the first half, scoring two more goals in the second half, performing a rare five-son pick-up in football. Osgot, who came on as a substitute in the second half, scored four goals in a row in 24 minutes, completing the big four joy.
After this round of World Cup qualifiers, Norway ranked first in the group with 15 points in five games, and held 21 goals in their hands; Italy ranked second in the group with 3 wins and 1 loss in four games, but only 5 goals in their goals in five games, Israel ranked third in the group with 3 wins and 2 losses in five games, and only 4 goals in their goals in four games, Estonia ranked fourth in the group with 1 wins and 4 points in five games, and Moldova ranked last in the group with 0 points in five games. Although the Italian team has one less game, the gap with Norway has reached 6 points, and the goal difference is 16!
If Italy wants to overtake Norway, it will not only need to defeat Norway at home in the last round, but also have to get 16 more goals than Norway in the remaining 4 games, which is almost impossible to complete. Therefore, after Norway defeated Moldova 11-1, it not only greatly increased its hope of entering the World Cup finals, but also could also make Italy a World Cup play-off again. With the poor performance of Italy in the past two playoffs, it is difficult for fans to believe that they can survive this time. The possibility of Italy, the four-time World Cup champion, missing the World Cup finals three times in a row, is getting bigger and bigger!
Note: The picture is from the Internet.
