Italy look to make up ground in Group I when they take on Estonia on Friday evening with Gennaro Gattuso’s side sitting third in the table, behind Israel and Norway.

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• Italy have appointed Gattuso as their new head coach, this will be his first game in charge of the national side.

• Estonia have won just one of their four games in qualifying so far (v Moldova).

• Italy are at risk of being in a precarious position when it comes to qualifying for the World Cup next year, as it stands they are third in Group I.

🟢 Gattuso takes charge of his first game as manager

As I touched on briefly in the breakdown of the selections, it has been a tough few years for Italian football and they could once again be on the end of an embarrassing reality in this qualifying stage if they can’t make up the ground to Israel and Norway who currently lead the way in Group I. 

Gattuso is taking charge of his first game as the head coach of the Italian national team following an unsuccessful spell by Luciano Spalleti whose tenure was defined by a lack of any real playing style and stubbornness in failing to call up players that deserved to be in the squad. 

If you go through the Italian squad player by player, it becomes obvious that they aren’t at the level of sides like Germany, Spain or England. However, they do have the quality to get through this group and will need to react urgently to their 3-0 defeat against Norway in the last round of qualifying which may have just put their chances of qualifying for the World Cup in a small bit of jeopardy.

🔵 Uphill battle for Estonia

Estonia rank 126th in the FIFA World Rankings and are the lowest ranked side in the group, effectively making this Italy’s easiest assignment of qualifying - at least on paper. 

Estonia have managed to get a win on the board from their four qualifying matches this campaign which came against Moldova.

They were beaten comprehensively by Israel on the road but did limit Norway to just one goal when they welcomed Stale Solbakken’s side last time out, though Norway did generate an xG of 2.99 in that game.

📊 Italy v Estonia H2H

The most recent meeting between the sides was back in 2020 with Italy running out 4-0 winners on that occasion.

Football Predictions at Andy's Bet Club

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* I recommend waiting for confirmed team line-ups before placing any bets.

* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.