Italy – Norway, Getty Images November 16, 2025, 11:43 p.m

The last round of the main qualification round of the 2026 World Cup gave us a solution in the context of Group I, where the performance of the Norwegian national team was an absolute surprise. Or rather, not a performance, but simply a beating of all other members of the quintet, including the titular Italian national team, which received its three goals without an answer in the first round, while on the reporting day it wanted to take revenge already on its own field. It was not for nothing that Gennaro Gattuso was invited to save the main team of the country, and he immediately issued a streak of five consecutive victories, significantly improved the position of the “Squad Azzurri”, and was preparing to fight back against the sensational Norwegians in Milan.

And when the Italians traditionally powerfully sang their national anthem before the game, even to the accompaniment of the rain, which did not stop for a moment on the day of the match, but directly after the game, it seems that it subsided a little only after the break, it was immediately noticeable that the hosts were focused on the maximum result and not for a joke. The tension was intense, and the Stole Solbakken team immediately felt it to its full extent.

In the end, the Norwegians also passed rather quickly. In the 11th minute, Pio Esposito used his best football skill – to put his back on the opposition’s defenders, and unceremoniously turned around with a shot from Dimarco’s pass from the left wing, just outside the goalkeeper. There is one goal. But Gattuso’s side still needed to score eight more to move their top-of-the-table rivals, although with the pace of attack that Italy immediately took on, it began to look like it wasn’t such a fantasy.

The Norwegians did not expect this development too much, so we saw the first sharpness from their side only in the 31st minute, when Noosa applied himself with a long shot from the left flank over the goal. Not too sharp, but the Italians did not offer anything interesting from their own side during this time after their own goal. And just one more chance for Esposito late in the first half, when Pio headed home a cross from the left wing, the lone chance in front of the visitors’ goal before the break in that period.

And then the teams returned to the field with a completely opposite attitude. To be honest, seeing Gattuso’s team so frail and unmotivated after talking to the coach was simply a shock factor. And this Italy in the end simply crumbled under the pressure of the opponents’ moments, which they created with terrifying stability.

The goals eventually poured into Donnarumma’s goal as well, and in the end it began to seem that only the final whistle could stop the Solbakken team. And it really was. Noosa set the scoring pace in the 63rd minute and was immediately backed up by Holland’s quick attacks with a double. And Strand Larsen recorded the final chord on his account in a counterattack, when not even a third of the original audience remained in the stands of San Siro. And who could possibly like what the local national team performed after the break?

Italy: Donnarumma – Di Lorenzo, Mancini, Bastoni (Buongiorno, 86), Dimarco – Politano, Locatelli (Scamacca, 79), Barella (Ricci, 86), Frattesi (Cristante, 68) – Reteghi, P. Esposito (Zaccagni, 79).

Norway: Nylann — Ryerson, Ayer, Heggem, Möller-Wolfe (Estigor, 88) — Torstvedt (Oshor, 75), Berg (Thorsby, 64), Berge, Nusa — Serlot (Bobb, 76), Holland (Strand Larsen, 89).

Warning: Barella, Bastoni, Esposito