16 goal difference difference! Italy will face Norway in the final round. They were eliminated in the play-offs of the previous two World Cup qualifying rounds.

On October 15th, in the 8th round of the European Group I of the World Cup preliminaries, Italy defeated Israel 3-0 and was 3 points away from the group leader Norway.

After Italy defeated Norway 0-3 in the first round of the World Cup preliminaries, it has won 5 consecutive games and is 3 points behind Norway with the last two games left. The two teams will also face a direct confrontation in the final round.

According to the rules of the European preliminaries of the World Cup, if the two teams have the same score, they will compare the goal difference and number of goals scored. Currently, Italy lags behind Norway in these two statistics. Norway has a goal difference of 26 and Italy has a goal difference of 10.

The second place in each group, a total of 12 teams, and the 4 best performing teams in the UEFA Nations League, a total of 16 teams, will compete for 4 World Cup finals tickets through the play-offs.

Italy is likely to qualify for the World Cup qualifying play-offs for the third consecutive time. In the 2017 World Cup qualifying play-offs, Italy was eliminated by Sweden 0-1, 0-0. In the 2022 World Cup qualifying European play-off semi-finals, Italy lost 0-1 to North Macedonia and missed the World Cup for two consecutive years.