Gennaro Gattuso says Italy must climb “Everest” to reach the 2026 World Cup, with a crucial away play-off final against Bosnia and Herzegovina next.
BERGAMO: Gennaro Gattuso said Italy still have a mountain to climb to reach the 2026 World Cup finals. Bosnia and Herzegovina stand between the Azzurri and qualification after a 2-0 play-off semi-final win over Northern Ireland.
“We’ve taken a little step forward, now we have to climb the mountain, the Everest,” said the Italy coach. The final will be played away from home against the Bosnians.
Italy have not qualified for a World Cup since the 2014 tournament. The threat of a third consecutive absence weighed heavily on everyone involved.
“We know that there’s a lot at stake,” Gattuso added. “I think everyone had some butterflies today and that’s understandable. I had them, Gigi Buffon has them, we all did.”
The team battled past Northern Ireland without shining against lower-league opposition. Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean provided two rare moments of quality with their goals in Bergamo.
“Today the top priority was to win,” Gattuso stated. “I wasn’t interested in the performance today, just as I’m not interested in the performance in Bosnia.”
He emphasised that awareness of the long-standing danger was key. “All we had to do was be aware of the danger and what we’d been missing for a very long time. And I think we did that very well.”
