Italy 27 players called up for Moldova and Norway, World Cup Qualifiers

By Anna Italia
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🇮🇹👉   The Head Coach of Italy, Gennaro Gattuso, has summoned 27 players for the World Cup qualifying matches against Moldova and Norway. Italy will play its final two fixtures in Group I of the World Cup qualifiers, beginning with a match against Moldova in Chișinău on Thursday, 13 November 2025. The concluding game will be in Milan against Norway on Sunday, 16 November. The training camp starts on Monday, 10 November, at the Coverciano National Training Centre.

Among the newly called players, Cagliari goalkeeper Elia Caprile is making his debut call-up to the senior national team. Alessandro Buongiorno and Samuele Ricci are making a return to the Azzurri squad.  They last represented Italy in March 2025 and June 2025, respectively. Gianluca Scamacca is also rejoining the team. He was summoned by Gattuso back in September.  Still, he had to leave the camp before the match against Estonia in Bergamo for not fully recovered from a muscular injury he sustained before arriving at Coverciano. Nicolò Barella, who received a booking on 14 October during the match against Israel, will be unavailable for the game against Moldova due to suspension.

Currently, three Azzurri players are under yellow card warnings: Andrea Cambiaso, Davide Frattesi, and Sandro Tonali.

How are things working out for the Italian team?

Italy has recorded five consecutive wins, securing a play-off spot with two games to spare. There is still a hope of topping the group and earning a direct place at the World Cup. This can happen only if the Azzurri win both remaining games and drastically improve their goal difference over the current leaders (Norway +26, Italy +10). Alternatively, they could rely on Haaland and his teammates dropping points in their home match against Estonia on 13 November.

  🇮🇹    ITALY SQUAD LIST

GOALKEEPERS: Elia Caprile (Cagliari), Marco Carnesecchi (Atalanta), Gianluigi Donnarumma (Manchester City), Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham).

DEFENDERS: Alessandro Bastoni (Inter), Raoul Bellanova (Atalanta), Alessandro Buongiorno (Napoli), Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), Andrea Cambiaso (Juventus), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Napoli), Federico Dimarco (Inter), Matteo Gabbia (Milan), Gianluca Mancini (Roma).

MIDFIELDERS: Nicolò Barella (Inter), Bryan Cristante (Roma), Davide Frattesi (Inter), Manuel Locatelli (Juventus), Samuele Ricci (Milan), Sandro Tonali (Newcastle).

FORWARDS: Francesco Pio Esposito (Inter), Moise Kean (Fiorentina), Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna), Matteo Politano (Napoli), Giacomo Raspadori (Atletico Madrid), Mateo Retegui (Al-Qadsiah), Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta), Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio).

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Photo via x.com/ Azzurri_En

✅    GROUP I SCHEDULE AND STANDINGS

13 November, 18:00: Norway vs. Estonia (Oslo)
13 November, 20:45: Moldova vs. ITALY (Chisinau)
16 November, 20:45: Israel vs. Moldova (Debrecen)
16 November, 20:45: ITALY vs. Norway (Milan)

Group I Standings: Norway, 18 points (six games played), ITALY, 15 points (six), Israel, nine points (seven), Estonia, four points (seven), Moldova, one point (six).

✅   STATS WITH THE OPPONENTS.

Statistics reveal that Italy has achieved six victories in six matches against Moldova. The last encounter on June 9 in Reggio Emilia ended with a 2-0 win, courtesy of goals from Cambiaso and Raspadori. Italy has faced Norway 18 times, securing ten wins, four draws, and four losses, which includes a 3-0 loss on June 6 in Oslo during the Azzurri’s first match of the qualifying group.

✅  PREVIOUS GAMES IN CHISINAU AND MILAN.

Italy has faced Chisinau on two occasions previously, both during World Cup qualifying matches. On October 5, 1996, Italy defeated Moldova with a score of 3-1, thanks to two goals from Fabrizio Ravanelli and one from Pierluigi Casiraghi. Then, on September 8, 2004, Alessandro Del Piero netted the sole and winning goal in the match against the home team.

Italy, who played their very first game in history on 15 May 1910 at the Arena Civica, defeating France 6-2, is set to return to the ‘Meazza’ eight months after their loss to Germany in the first leg of the Nations League quarter-finals. Milan, the second city after Rome to host the most national team matches (63, with 39 wins, 19 draws, and 5 defeats), and the home of the Italian Football Federation from 1905 to 1911, has witnessed Italy play in four different stadiums: the Arena Civica, the Velodromo Sempione (which was demolished in 1928), the Milan Field in Viale Lombardia, and the San Siro Stadium, which was named Giuseppe Meazza on 3 March 1980.

In Milan, the capital of Lombardy, Italy maintained an impressive unbeaten streak that lasted nearly a century.  Precisely 96 years: starting from the 1-2 defeat to Hungary in January 1925 (at Campo Milan, with the earlier loss to Hungary in 1911 occurring at Arena Civica) to the 1-2 loss against Spain in October 2021 at the ‘Meazza’. Italy’s most notable victory in Milan was the remarkable 9-4 triumph over France on 18 January 1920, while Austria is the team they have faced the most frequently (six times), followed closely by Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, and Portugal (each five times).