MILAN: Italy are hoping to end a 12-year absence from the World Cup as one of the planet’s most important footballing nations heads to the qualifying play-offs in the midst of another identity crisis.

Northern Ireland come to Bergamo for what promises to be a tense semi-final on Thursday as Italy desperately try to not miss a third consecutive World Cup.

Gennaro Gattuso led Italy to second in qualifying Group ‘I’ and has obtained some stability for the Azzurri following the sacking of the volatile Luciano Spalletti.

But two heavy defeats dished out by group winners Norway were a stark reminder of how far the national team has fallen since last winning the World Cup 20 years ago — with Gattuso in midfield.

Since then Italy haven’t played a knockout match in the World Cup.

Both of those qualification failures came via the play-offs and were deeply traumatic events to a footballing hotbed which has lost its self-esteem.

The 48-year-old on Wednesday called the play-off semi-final the most important match of his coaching career.

“Tomorrow is definitely the most important match of my career,” Gattuso told reporters. “But I’m prepared... I’m not thinking about if things go badly, I want to think positively, think big, and tomorrow we’ll give it our best.”

Gattuso admitted that for him this match is in a way is even big­ger than the 2006 World Cup final.

Gattuso joked that he needed pills to help him sleep, otherwise he stays up through the night “like a bat” due to the pressure.

“That’s another world, I stopped playing years ago and I can’t even remember the matches I played,” said Gattuso. “There’s no comparison really, not such much for the tension but for the responsibility that I’ve put on myself.”

Gattuso added that most of his players were fit, and that Inter Milan Alessandro Bastoni and Atalanta Gianluca Scamacca were the only doubts for the semi-final.

One of Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina await Italy in the final should they get past Northern Ireland as expected.

PEDIGREE WON’T MATTER

In Thursday’s other playoff, Poland will be up against Albania with a strong recent record in such games, but coach Jan Urban said on Wednesday that past successes mean little as they prepare to face a familiar opponent.

Poland reached the last World Cup through the playoff route, also qualifying for Euro 2024 that way, with many of the current squad having come through those pressure games.

“Yes, they have experience, of course they do,” Urban told reporters ahead of Thursday’s game in Warsaw. “If that’s the card they want to play, I think that when they go out on the pitch, that experience is in them.

“But they won’t be thinking about having played such matches before, they’ll be thinking about what we’ve planned, how we want to play against this team. You’re in the match, analysing what’s happening on the pitch. There’s responsibility, stress, fati­gue, there’s no time for such things. You don’t think about things like that.”

Urban has only been in charge since last July, after Michal Probierz resigned following the fall-out from his decision to strip Poland’s record scorer Robert Lewandowski of the captaincy.

Albania, meanwhile, have been led by Sylvinho since 2023, and his opening game was a 1-0 loss to Poland in Warsaw.

The winner of Thursday’s game will face either Ukraine or Sweden in Tuesday’s final.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2026