Luciano Spalletti’s Italy kicked off their World Cup qualifying campaign with a humiliating 0–3 defeat in torrential rain in Oslo last Friday, at the hands of Ståle Solbakken’s Norway, who claimed their third win of the qualifiers at Ullevaal Stadium. The expected goals (xG) stats also told the same story.

With this result, fears of Italy once again missing out on the World Cup, just like after 2014, suddenly don’t seem far-fetched at all. Calls for the sacking of Spalletti, known for his cocoa-brown bald head, are growing louder as the noose tightens around the veteran coach’s neck after just one game, with Norway already breaking away with a nine-point lead. The group’s minnows, Estonia and Moldova, are expected to fall behind Italy as the qualifiers progress, leaving the Italians fighting for a playoff spot, likely with Israel.

Whether Spalletti is actually already fired or not does not make much of a difference.

The hosts scored all three goals in the first half. Alexander Sørloth, who has netted 20 goals this season for Atlético Madrid in La Liga, opened the scoring in the 15th minute after good work by Leipzig’s forward Antonio Nusa. Nusa then scored the second himself in the 34th minute, and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland added the third in the 42nd minute, after dribbling past a few Italian defenders and slotting it home from an assist by Arsenal’s captain Martin Ødegaard. The second half remained goalless. Italy’s performance was so poor that Spalletti’s men managed only one real attempt on Norway’s goal—when substitute Lorenzo Lucca of Udinese headed straight at Sevilla’s Norwegian goalkeeper Ørjan Nyland in added time.

As Spalletti’s bubble looks close to bursting, the leather-headed coach can only curse the absence of Inter defender Francesco Acerbi, who declined the call-up following Inter’s heavy Champions League final loss to PSG. Injuries to Napoli’s Alessandro Buongiorno, Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori, Milan’s Matteo Gabbia, and Juventus midfielder Manuel Locatelli have also thinned out the squad. Still, one would expect a country of Italy’s footballing pedigree to produce a strong enough lineup to seriously contend for a World Cup berth. At this point, the real issue lies between the ears—mental attitude—and that leads to close scrutiny of Spalletti’s actions, or lack thereof.

Italy’s (3-5-2) possible starting XI:

Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Ranieri, Bastoni; Cambiaso, Frattesi, Ricci, Tonali, Udogie; Raspadori, Retegui.

Serghei Cleșcenco’s Moldova sits at the bottom of the group with zero points, having lost both of their March qualifiers—0–5 to Norway and 2–3 to Estonia—within a few days at Stadionul Zimbru in Chișinău. In the second match, Moldova’s goals came from Heerenveen striker Ion Nicolaescu and Slaven Belupo midfielder Mihail Caimacov.

In their final preparation match before continuing the qualifiers, Moldova lost 0–2 in a friendly against Poland last Friday at Stadion Śląski in Chorzów. The winning goal came at the half-hour mark from Aston Villa’s Matty Cash, who volleyed the ball into the bottom left corner from inside the box after a cross from Midtjylland’s Adam Buksa.

Moldova will be without winger Maxim Cojocaru of Otelul Galați, who received a red card against Estonia in March and is suspended for the Italy match. Torino’s 19-year-old midfield talent Sergiu Perciun made his senior international debut against Poland, coming on for the suspended Cojocaru with just under 15 minutes left. He’ll be looking for more minutes against Italy, although he’s unlikely to start. The total value of Moldovan players is roughly 15 million euros, Italy is 750 million.

Moldova’s (5-4-1) possible starting XI:

Avram; Plătică, Posmac, Baboglo, Mudrac, Reabciuk; Caimacov, Motpan, Rata, Ioniță; Nicolaescu

It’s clear as day: after the total collapse in Oslo, Italian fans will accept nothing less than a resounding redemption against Moldova.

Good luck!

卢西亚诺·斯帕莱蒂率领的意大利队上周五在奥斯陆的暴雨中以0-3羞辱性地输给了索尔巴肯率领的挪威队。挪威队在乌勒瓦瓦尔球场取得了他们在世界杯预选赛中的第三场胜利。预期目标（xG）统计数据也说明了同样的情况。

有了这样的结果，人们对意大利会像2014年那样再次无缘世界杯的担忧，突然之间就不那么牵强了。在挪威以9分的领先优势领先对手的情况下，仅仅一场比赛之后，要求解雇斯帕莱蒂的呼声就越来越高，因为这位经验丰富的教练的脖子上的绞索就越来越紧了。随着预选赛的进行，该小组的小鱼队爱沙尼亚和摩尔多瓦预计将落后于意大利，留下意大利争夺季后赛席位，很可能与以色列竞争。

斯帕莱蒂是否真的已经被解雇并没有太大的区别。

主队在上半场进了三个球。本赛季在西甲联赛中为马德里航空公司打进20球的亚历山大·索罗思在第15分钟在莱比锡前锋安东尼奥·努萨的精彩助攻下首开纪录。第34分钟，努萨打入第二粒进球。第42分钟，曼城球员哈兰德（Erling Haaland）带球越过几名意大利后卫，接阿森纳队长马丁（Martin）的助攻打入第三粒进球Ødegaard。下半场仍然是一球未进。意大利队的表现如此糟糕，以至于斯帕莱蒂的队员们只有一次真正的机会去攻破挪威队的球门——在补时阶段，乌迪内斯替补出场的洛伦佐·卢卡（Lorenzo Lucca）头球直击塞维利亚的挪威门将Ørjan尼兰。

当斯帕莱蒂的幻想快要破灭的时候，这位皮囊教练只能诅咒国米后卫弗朗西斯科·阿塞比的缺席，阿塞比在国米欧冠决赛惨败给巴黎圣日耳曼后拒绝了国家队征召。那不勒斯的布翁焦尔诺、阿森纳的卡拉菲奥里、米兰的加比亚和尤文图斯的洛卡泰利的受伤也削弱了球队的阵容。尽管如此，人们还是会期待一个有着意大利足球血统的国家能够打造出足够强大的阵容，认真争夺世界杯席位。在这一点上，真正的问题在于心理态度，这导致了对斯帕莱蒂的行为或缺乏行为的密切关注。

意大利的首发阵容（3-5-2）：

Donnarumma;迪洛伦佐、拉涅利、巴斯托尼；坎比亚索、弗拉蒂西、利玛窦、托纳利、乌多吉；Raspadori Retegui。

谢尔盖Cleșcenco的摩尔多瓦队在几天内在Chișinău的Zimbru体育场输掉了3月预选赛的两场比赛——0比5输给挪威和2比3输给爱沙尼亚，以0分排名小组最后。在第二场比赛中，摩尔多瓦的进球来自海伦芬队前锋尼古拉拉斯库和斯拉文·别卢波队中场米哈伊尔·凯马科夫。

在预选赛前的最后一场准备比赛中，摩尔多瓦于上周五在Chorzów Śląski球场与波兰进行了一场友谊赛。半场结束时，阿斯顿维拉的马蒂·卡什打入制胜一球，他接到米特日兰的亚当·布克萨的传中，在禁区内凌空抽射将球打入左下角。

摩尔多瓦边锋科约卡鲁将缺阵，他曾在3月份对爱沙尼亚的比赛中吃到红牌，并将在对意大利的比赛中停赛。都灵19岁的中场天才塞尔吉乌·佩尔西恩在对阵波兰的比赛中完成了他的国家队首秀，在比赛还剩不到15分钟的时候顶替了被禁赛的科约卡鲁。在对阵意大利的比赛中，他会争取更多的出场时间，尽管他不太可能首发。摩尔多瓦球员的总价值约为1500万欧元，意大利为7.5亿欧元。

摩尔多瓦（5-4-1）可能的首发阵容：

阿夫拉姆;普莱尔提克、波斯马克、巴布格洛、穆德拉克、雷亚布丘克；凯马科夫，莫特潘，拉塔，Ioniță；Nicolaescu

很明显：在奥斯陆的彻底崩溃之后，意大利球迷只会接受一场对摩尔多瓦的响亮救赎。

好运！