Northern Ireland vs Italy

Italy head to Windsor Park to take on Northern Ireland in a crunch 2022 World Cup qualification Group C encounter.

Though Northern Ireland’s hopes of reaching their first World Cup finals since 1986 are long gone, they could still play a significant role in Italy’s ambition to qualify for next year’s tournament. Despite experiencing another underwhelming World Cup qualifying campaign (W2, D2, L3), the hosts will enter this round in high spirits after beating Lithuania 1-0 at home last time out. Seeking back-to-back victories for the second time in 2021, Northern Ireland will rely on a rock-solid defense that has yet to concede a single goal in the ongoing World Cup qualifying campaign at home (W1, D2). However, the home side’s lackluster attack has scored just once across their three 2022 World Cup qualifying matches on home soil. Indeed, you have to go back to March 2019 to find the last time the ‘Green and White Army’ scored over 1.5 goals in a home international.

In the meantime, Jorginho’s last-gasp miss from the spot in a 1-1 home draw with Switzerland last time out means Italy cannot afford a slip-up in Belfast. A victory at Windsor Park would guarantee the Italians a return to the World Cup finals after failed attempt to qualify for ‘Russia 2018’ regardless of Switzerland’s result versus Bulgaria. Yet, Italy’s topsy-turvy form since their Euro 2020 triumph (W2, D3, L1) remains a reason for concern, especially given that they’ve netted under 1.5 goals four times during that six-game sequence. Italy’s abovementioned draw with Switzerland halted their seven-game winning run in away from home in major tournament qualification clashes. But after winning their last two competitive meetings with Norther Ireland by an aggregate score of 5-0, ‘Gli Azzurri’ will be confident of picking up another victory here.