Key events
The teams
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Vasilj, Dedic, Muharemovic, Katic, Kolasinac, Bajraktarevic, Sunjic, Basic, Memic, Demirovic, Dzeko.
Subs: Hadzikic, Zlomislic, Mujakic, Celik, Tahirovic, Tabakovic, Radeljic, Alajbegovic, Burnic, Hadziahmetovic, Bazdar, Gigovic.
Italy: Donnarumma, Mancini, Bastoni, Calafiori, Politano, Barella, Locatelli, Tonali, Dimarco, Kean, Retegui.
Subs: Carnesecchi, Meret, Palestra, Spinazzola, Buongiorno, Raspadori, Pisilli, Esposito, Cristante, Frattesi, Gatti, Cambiaso.
Referee: Clement Turpin (France).
Preamble
Boznia and Herzegovina want to get to the 2026 World Cup finals just as much as Italy. But we don’t write the rules, and this story is all about the Azzurri, who are in danger of becoming the first of the World Cup behemoths to fail to qualify for three tournaments in a row. Uruguay, France, Spain and England have all missed two on the bounce, but a third consecutive failure for a footballing nation of this import would be unprecedented. And no, the pre-totaalvoetbal Dutch don’t count.
Italy weren’t particularly good against Northern Ireland last week. But then neither were Bosnia and Herzegovina as they squeezed past Wales, and the four-time winners have a good record against the men from the Balkan Peninsula. Bosnia and Herzegovina won the first meeting between the countries, in 1996, but since then it’s been pretty much all Italy, with four wins and a draw from the five matches played between 2019 and 2024. So on balance, you’d expect Rino Gattuso’s team to make it to North America this summer … but then most folk thought they’d see off Sweden to get to 2018 and North Macedonia ahead of 2022, and look what happened there. Kick-off is at 7.45pm BST. It’s on!
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