Italy doesn't have margin for error if they want to be in the World Cup next month, and they need to win the upcoming two matches in the European qualifiers, starting tonight with a match against Northern Ireland, at 20:45 CET, 19:45 GMT. If Italy wins tonight, they will face Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday, March 31, and then will join Group B (Canada, Qatar, Switzerland).
In theory, they are big favourites for both matches (Italy is 12th in FIFA ranking, Northern Ireland is 69th) but so were they in 2018, when they lost to Sweden, and four years later when they lost to North Macedonia. Two World Cups missed in a row, for a country that has won the World Cup four times.
Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said in an article to La Gazzeta dello Sport that this "is certainly the most important game of my career, even if I've been coaching for a few years now", and that he's had sleepless nights: "I'd by lying if I said that when I put my head on the pillow at night, I didn't hear the voices saying 'Take us to the World Cup, take us to the World Cup, take us to the World Cup"
"Having said that, I am prepared, and believe me I am not thinking about things going badly. I want to think positive, to think big", Gattuso added (via ESPN).