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Gennaro Gattuso calls Italy vs Northern Ireland in Bergamo the biggest match of his coaching career as World Cup hopes and a tense play off path hang in the balance.
Italy manager Gennaro Gattuso (AP)
Gennaro Gattuso on Wednesday described Italy’s World Cup play-off semi-final against Northern Ireland as the most important match of his coaching career.
The Azzurri host Northern Ireland in Bergamo on Thursday, aiming to end a 12-year absence from the World Cup finals after failing to qualify for the last two editions in Russia and Qatar.
“Tomorrow is definitely the most important match of my career,” Gattuso told reporters.
“But I’m prepared… I’m not thinking about if things go badly, I want to think positively, think big, and tomorrow we’ll give it our best.”
Gattuso admitted that, for him, Thursday’s match is in some ways even bigger than the 2006 World Cup final, which he won as a player for Italy after a penalty shoot-out against France.
Italy have not played a knockout match at a World Cup since then, and eliminations in the qualifying play-offs in 2018 and 2022 have given Thursday’s game huge significance.
Gattuso joked that he needed pills to help him sleep, otherwise he stays up all night “like a bat” because of the pressure.
“That’s another world, I stopped playing years ago and I can’t even remember the matches I played,” said Gattuso.
“There’s no comparison really, not so much for the tension but for the responsibility that I’ve put on myself.”
Gattuso added that most of his players were fit, and that Inter Milan defender Alessandro Bastoni and Atalanta striker Gianluca Scamacca were the only doubts for the semi-final.
Can Italy Beat Northern Ireland?
If Italy get past Northern Ireland, who have not been at a World Cup since being knocked out at the group stage 40 years ago, they will face either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina away from home on Tuesday.
Northern Ireland held Italy to a goalless draw at Windsor Park in 2021, a result which stopped the reigning European champions from topping their qualifying group and led to their play-off defeat to North Macedonia.
“The important thing for us is to play the game and not think about what’s at stake. The expectation clearly lies… with the big nation, that’s Italy,” said Northern Ireland coach Michael O’Neill.
“I think we have to not be intimidated by the reputation of the players that they have.”
O’Neill, who took Northern Ireland to their first ever European Championship in 2016, is aware of the pressure on Italy and said he wanted a “tight” match.
“Italy have their own situation to deal with which is their own history. They only have that history because they’re a top football nation. We fully respect that,” added O’Neill.
“It’s not something that we can use to our advantage, it’s something that they have to deal with, and we have to make the game difficult.”
(With inputs from Agencies)
March 26, 2026, 08:40 IST
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