Liveblog: Norway vs. Italy, 2026 World Cup qualifier

“It can be explained with the way the game went. We conceded the first goal that was avoidable, then in the open spaces, they had a couple of individual moves that caused us problems,” Spalletti told RAI Sport.

“After that, it was all more difficult.”

The first and indeed only shot on target was from Lorenzo Lucca in stoppages, which wasn’t even a difficult save. Why was there simply no reaction from the Nazionale, similar to the EURO 2024 debacle against Switzerland?

“After going 2-0 down, they sat back in their own half, it was difficult to find spaces, but above all the lack of players who could take players on in one-on-one situations made the difference.”

Only the top team goes through directly to the tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico, while runners-up enter the play-offs, so this defeat is already a huge blow for qualifying hopes.

Italy missed out on the last two World Cup competitions in 2018 and 2022 by faltering at the play-off stage.

Spalletti was asked if this result and performance puts the entire Italy project in doubt.

“I am the head of this group, it is a squad I chose and so I continue with them. We need to improve in certain aspects, because we cannot give advantages to the opponents by gifting the ball,” replied the coach.

“This is the best group that we evaluated, so we continue with these players.”