Norway vs Italy Preview

Norway vs Italy

Competition – World Cup Qualifying

Stadium: Ullevaal Stadion

Date: 6th June 2025

Kick-off time – 19:45 GMT

Norway will look to make it five wins in a row when they welcome Italy to the Ullevaal Stadion on Friday.

The hosts have not been to the World Cup since 1998, but they look set to qualify for the 2026 event, having started this qualifying campaign with back-to-back wins.

Ståle Solbakken’s men thrashed Moldova and Israel in March to make it two out of two in this competition and four successive wins by an aggregate scoreline of 18-3 overall so they’re unlikely to be overawed by the visit of Italy here.

The Norwegians are looking to win three successive WCQ matches for just the second time this century. However, they will have to arrest a four-match winless H2H run to do so (D1, L3), with their last victory over Italy coming back in June 2000.

Norway at least boasts some strong home WCQ form. Just one of their last nine such matches ended in defeat (W5, D3), and four of those wins came by multiple-goal margins.

Meanwhile, Italy will look to begin their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign on a high when they travel to Oslo.

This game serves as Italy’s first match in this WCQ cycle due to their participation in the Nations League in March. The Azzurri have demons to banish on this stage, having failed to qualify for the last two World Cups. Their last appearance at the finals came back in 2014.

That’s despite going unbeaten in the previous WCQ cycle (W4, D4) before eventually losing a play-off to minnows North Macedonia. Luciano Spalletti’s men have hardly had the perfect preparation, as they’re winless in three matches (D1, L2).

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