Italy had a truly disastrous start to the 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign, swept aside 3-0 by Norway by half-time and mustering no response in Oslo.
This was the first game in Group I for the Azzurri, which also has Israel, Estonia and Moldova, but Norway had already won both their matches. Injuries ruled out the likes of Moise Kean, Alessandro Buongiorno, Matteo Gabbia, Riccardo Calafiori and Giorgio Scalvini, while Francesco Acerbi refused the call-up. Verona defender Diego Coppola therefore made his senior Italy debut and Davide Zappacosta his first appearance since September 2018.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
It was a poor start, as Alessandro Bastoni’s cross-field pass was cut out by Antonio Nusa, who placed a smart through ball for Alexander Sorloth to spring the offside trap and squeeze the finish beneath the on-rushing Gianluigi Donnarumma from seven yards.
Giacomo Raspadori fired over from the tightest of angles, but Donnarumma had to make a one-handed save at the near post on Sorloth.
Norway doubled their lead with a fantastic goal from the lively Nusa, who cut inside past two from the left and smashed a ferocious finish into the roof of the net from the edge of the area.
It got worse on the stroke of half-time, Erling Haaland springing the offside trap on the Martin Odegaard through ball and sending Donnarumma to ground with a shimmy to deposit into the empty net. This was the first time in their history that Italy had conceded three goals in the first half of a World Cup qualifier.
Davide Frattesi came on for the restart and Odegaard generously threw himself in the way of a Destiny Udogie effort, but Sander Berge almost made it 4-0 on 66 minutes with a sweeping shot from outside the area that smacked against the far post.
Italy never managed a single genuine shot on target, as the Norwegian goalkeeper was left entirely undisturbed until an easy save on Lorenzo Lucca’s header in stoppages from a Riccardo Orsolini cross.
Norway 3-0 Italy
Sorloth 14 (N), Nusa 34 (N), Haaland 42 (N)
Player statistic
| Alexander Sörloth (Assist: Antonio Nusa) |
 |
14' | ||
| Antonio Nusa | |
34' | ||
| Morten Thorsby |  |
38' | ||
| Erling Haaland (Assist: Martin Ødegaard) |
|
42' |
| Patrick Berg | |
55' |
Match statistic
Sack him ASAP
This is an utter humiliation . 3 world cups in a row and a 3-0 loss to Norway . Wow
playing inter players was a disaster. their minds were not their.
Spalletti out.
lo5t qualifiers to engerland
lo5t to Schweiz in a tournament for 1st time
And now this.
Spalletti has never looked like a CT.
Well done, Norway. 100% de5erved win.
Looks like Italy won’t qualify to the World cup again. Emberrasing performance, they didn’t even want to play the game.
What an uninspired disaster, the coach is terrible. He always looks depressed, we need someone to fire these guys up.
gravina out
disaster by all means! what in the world is happening to Italy national team? unbelievable what I am seeing!
is this Italy that we know it?
I am afraid Italy is no longer a powerhouse.
what next? shall we think Italy might lose to israel or Estonia or Moldova??
unbelievable, unimaginable & unthinkable.
Spalletti is a complete disgrace. can’t even pick a team correctly, tactically inept and a PR arrogant idiot
@ Manga Cake what about Gattuso? He s available.
The problems ard structural within SeriA and run deeper in Italy. Italy is, at best, a second tier futballing nation now.
It will be a miracle if we finish second in this group.
Spalletti has to go How can you pick zappacosta whom can’t defend and Barella Who’s out of form not good enough all of them with the exception of Coppola . Shocking .