Italy vs Moldova

Sassuolo’s Mapei Stadium is the venue as Italy and Moldova go head-to-head in a ‘must-win’ 2026 World Cup qualifier. 

A disastrous 3-0 defeat in Norway last weekend marked the end of Luciano Spalletti’s tenure as the ex-Napoli manager prepares for his final game in charge of Italy. After missing out on the last two World Cup finals, the pressure is sky-high, with ‘Gli Azzurri’ already trailing Group I leaders by nine points, albeit with two games in hand. However, there’s no room for error anymore, as the Italians bid to halt a dismal four-game winless streak (D1, L3), during which they conceded a whopping 11 goals. Indeed, Spalletti’s fragile backline capitulated precisely three times in three of those four matches, though against a much better opposition. Nonetheless, they cannot take anything for granted after losing their last home World Cup qualifying match, slumping to a 1-0 defeat to North Macedonia in a 2022 play-off. Encouragingly, they’ve won their two most recent World Cup qualifiers in Emilia-Romagna without conceding. 

Meanwhile, Moldova’s hopes of securing World Cup qualification as an independent nation for the first time are already dead in the water after a disappointing start to their qualifying campaign. Indeed, they started with a 5-0 rout to Norway at home before losing to Estonia 3-2, stretching their wait for a World Cup qualifying win to October 2013 (D3, L19). Therefore, their chances of upsetting the odds in Italy look slim, especially considering they’ve lost all five previous meetings with Gli Azzurri, conceding multiple goals in four! A 2-0 friendly loss to Poland in the build-up to this trip doesn’t bode well either, casting further doubt on the visitors’ quest to defy an unimpressive seven-game form on foreign soil (D2, L4).