Italy have been handed a tricky group for their 2018 World Cup qualification group, competing against Spain for top spot in Group G.
The groups for the qualifying campaign, due to start next year after the conclusion of Euro 2016, were drawn on Friday evening in Switzerland, providing many interesting encounters along the way.
The rest of the six-team group is composed of Albania, Israel, Macedonia, and Liechtenstein.
Antonio Conte’s Azzurri side are looking to build upon a succession of disappointing tournament results since their 2006 World Cup triumph, with the campaigns in 2010 and 2014 being disastrous.
They did manage to infamously reach the Euro 2012 final, but were trounced by Spain in arguably one of the most one-sided contests in recent memory.
Ouch. Luckily Spain is not at the peak of their dominance anymore but still ahead of Italy in my view.
This is the sort of scenarios that can make you miss a WC. They may rue the day having lost to Portugal that fateful night.
Italy may find themselves in a playoff to qualify for 2018.
Agree with your prediction of the play off. Don’t care as long as we get there.
I dread the thought that we are more likely to drop points against the other “lesser” teams.
Oh Well….. we need to concentrate on the Euro’s first and see how we come through that tournament before thinking about WC qualification.