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<\/p>\n
Italy will host a crucial World Cup qualifier match against Israel on Tuesday evening in the northern city of Udine, following a 3-1 victory over Estonia in Taklinn on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The latest result marks three wins in Italy’s World Cup qualifying campaign under new coach Gennaro Gattuso who said the Azzurri need to “keep building confidence and continue to improve”.<\/p>\n
Italy will need to avoid defeat against Israel on Tuesday to secure a\u00a0place in the play-offs, amid extra pressure after the Azzurri failed to qualify for the last two World Cups in a row.<\/p>\n
With a game in hand, Italy currently sits in second place and is level on nine points with Israel in third.<\/p>\n
However, both teams trail runaway group leaders Norway, who hold a significant points and goal difference advantage.<\/p>\n
With only the group winner qualifying directly, the match in Udine is effectively a decisive contest for the second-place finish.<\/p>\n
Rematch<\/strong><\/p>\n The two sides’ last encounter in September was a chaotic 5-4 thriller that saw Italy edge out a dramatic victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gattuso is reportedly considering some changes in the starting lineup to limit the opponent’s attacks, given that in the first leg the Azzurri conceded four goals, despite the final victory.<\/p>\n Key players for Italy include midfielder Nicol\u00f2 Barella, who controls the tempo, and forward Mateo Retegui.<\/p>\n However Italy will be without striker Moise Kean due to an ankle injury he sustained during the Estonia match, a significant blow as he had scored twice in the previous game against Israel.<\/p>\n In the last three qualifiers the Azzurri have shown an increased attacking potency, scoring 13 goals, in a winning streak praised by Gattuso’s predecessor Luciano Spalletti who was sacked in June following a heavy defeat by Norway.<\/p>\n “There’s a lot at stake” – Gattuso said ahead of the upcoming match – “If we win on Tuesday, Israel are out of contention”.<\/p>\n Political tensions<\/strong><\/p>\n The atmosphere surrounding the qualifier is highly charged due to heightened security concerns following recent large-scale pro-Palestinian protests across Italy, and repeated calls for the game to be called off, including from the mayor of Udine.<\/p>\n Security will be tight, which hosted an Italy-Israel match exactly one year ago, particularly around the Hotel Friuli where the Israeli team will be staying, and a protest is scheduled at 17.30.<\/p>\n Only 8,000 tickets have been sold for the\u00a0match which kicks off in the Bluenergy Stadium at 20.45 and will be screened on RAI 1.<\/p>\n Photo credit: Fabrizio Andrea Bertani \/ Shutterstock.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Italy seek to secure a playoff spot amid presure not to miss a third World Cup in a row. Italy will host a crucial World Cup qualifier match against Israel on Tuesday evening in the northern city of Udine, following a 3-1 victory over Estonia in Taklinn on Saturday. The latest result marks three wins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1902,3088,3136,2547,21563,9658,26713,3118],"class_list":["post-39443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eventi","tag-cup","tag-face","tag-israel","tag-italy","tag-key","tag-match","tag-qualifier","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}