Italy could be unseeded for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers if they fail to defeat Portugal in their upcoming friendly on Tuesday in Switzerland.
A win against Croatia would have guaranteed a place among the top nine European sides in the FIFA rankings but the 1-1 draw in Zagreb means the match with Portugal in Geneva takes on greater importance for the Azzurri.
Anything other than a win would see the Italian’s drop into second pot and the prospect of being paired with the likes of world champions Germany or Belgium with only the top side qualifying automatically out of the group for the World Cup in Russia.
A third consecutive draw competitively means Italy remain second in Group H in the hunt for a place at Euro 2016 but Conte will be under pressure after only one win in their last five international fixtures. To make matters worse, the Azzurri have suffered further squad withdrawals from an already depleted squad.
They lost Sampdoria full-back Lorenzo Di Silvestri and Gianluigi Buffon against Croatia while Daniele De Rossi has joined Simone Zaza, Andrea Barzagli and Marco Veratti in dropping out of the squad injured.
The good news is they won’t have to worry about the threat from Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Real Madrid star fired his country to a 3-2 victory over Armenia with an impressive hat-trick which kept them top of Group I, two points ahead of Denmark.
The current Ballon d’Or holder though has been allowed, along with Danny, William Carvalho and Bernardo Silva, to leave for his vacation early by coach Fernando Santos.
Since the 60-year-old replaced Paulo Bento, former Greece national coach has won four competitive matches in the row as well as a friendly victory over Argentina. However, without Ronaldo, a weakened Portugal side lost at home to Cape Verde 2-0 in March.
Italy are unbeaten against Portugal since 1976 and, having won the last six meetings, will also note they have conceded five goals in three games.
Conte will be looking to extend his nine match unbeaten run in charge but, with the need to secure a place among the top seeds for world cup qualifying, the Azzurri will need more than what they have managed recently.
Form Guide: Italy (D-D-D-W-W), Portugal (W-W-W-W-L)
Expected Starting XIs
Italy: Sirigu; De Sciglio, Bonucci, Ranocchia, Darmian; Pirlo, Parolo, Marchisio; Candreva, Pellè, El Shaarawy
Portugal: Rui Patricio; Cedric, Fabio Coentrao, Ricardo Carvalho, Bruno Alves; Joao Moutinho, Adrien Silva, Vieirinha; Nani, Ricardo Quaresma, Eliseu
