Italy recovered on Monday in the World Cup qualifying series after Friday’s setback in Norway. The team of coach Luciano Spalletti, who has to leave, beat Moldova 2-0. Thanks to Erling Haaland, the Norwegians retain the best papers for the World Cup ticket.
Italy suffered a major defeat in Oslo on Friday in its first qualifying match, where Norway was too strong with no less than 3-0. The Norwegians thus remained faultless in the qualifying series and caused Italy acute problems in the fight for a World Cup ticket. Italy also missed the previous two global final tournaments.
The poor match cost coach Spalletti his job, although he was still allowed to take a seat on the bench for the match against Moldova by the Italian federation. Italy easily won against the number 154 of the FIFA ranking through goals from Giacomo Raspadori just before half-time and from Andrea Cambiaso just after the break.
As a result, Italy is still seriously competing for a World Cup ticket, although it depends on the results of the still faultless Norway. The Norwegians did not have it easy on Monday evening visiting Estonia, but they did win: 0-1.
Haaland crowned himself match winner by tapping in from very close range after more than an hour. The joy was enormous for the striker, who is still waiting for the first final tournament with his country. Norway last qualified for a final tournament in 2000. In that year, the European Championship was held in the Netherlands and Belgium.
After four matches, the Norwegians have the full loot and are first in group I. Italy is third with three points from two matches. Israel collected six points from three matches and occupies second place.
Scoring Perisic and Modric strike out with Croatia
Croatia also won its second match in the World Cup qualifying series. With Luka Modric, PSV player Ivan Perisic and Ajacied Josip Sutalo in the starting lineup, the Croats were no less than 5-1 too strong for the Czech Republic, which had won the first three qualifying matches.
Both Modric and Perisic scored. Modric converted a penalty and Perisic shot hard after a good attack. The other Croatian goals were scored by Andrej Kramaric (two) and Ante Budimir.
In the same pool, Gibraltar let the first victory ever in the World Cup qualifying series slip through their fingers. The Gibraltarians were in the lead for a long time visiting the Faroe Islands, but eventually lost 2-1.
That was partly due to a special goal from Faroe player Árni Frederiksberg. The attacker curled the ball from a corner directly into the goal of Gibraltar.