Losing heavily to Italy, the Israeli team ended its hopes of participating in the 2026 World Cup
Italy dominate Israel 3-0 and Israel have officially failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Traveling to Italy’s home field, the Israeli team suffered a 0-3 defeat in Group I of the European qualifying round on the morning of October 15, thereby ending their hopes of participating in the 2026 World Cup.
In the first leg, Israel lost 4-5 to Italy at home after a dramatic score chase. In the rematch at Bluenergy (Italy), the home team needs to win all 3 points if they want to secure a place in the 2026 World Cup qualifying round. Israel does not want to fail because the result will make them say goodbye to their World Cup dream.
Right after the opening whistle, coach Gattuso asked his students to attack to find a goal. In the first 15 minutes, Italy had 3 good chances but Retegui, Cambiaso and Raspadori failed to take advantage.
Italy almost conceded a goal in the 28th minute but goalkeeper Donnarumma successfully saved the goal. The highlight of the match came in the 44th minute, Matan Baltaxa knocked down an Italian player in the penalty area and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. On the 11m mark, Retegui successfully finished to open the score.
In the second half, the match was quite exciting. Cambiaso put the ball into the Israeli net but the referee did not recognize it due to offside. In the 74th minute, Retegui performed solo in the penalty area and then finished past Glazer, doubling the gap to 2-0 for Italy.
Manor Solomon had a chance to reduce the score for Israel right after that but unfortunately missed it. In the 90+3 minute, Mancini sealed the score 3-0 for the Italian team after a beautiful pass from Dimarco.
With this victory, Azzurri secured second place in Group I of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Europe and a place in the play-offs.
Israel officially gave up on their 2026 World Cup dream when they only had 9 points from 7 matches and only had one match left. Italy (15 points from 6 matches) continued to hope to catch up with the top team Norway (18 points from 6 matches) before the last two matches in November.
