Gennaro Gattuso's team achieved an important victory against Northern Ireland (2:0) in Bergamo tonight in the semi-finals of the World Cup play-offs.
The Azzurri struggled in the first half, unable to find a way to the net, and then Sandro Tonali gave his team the lead with a powerful and precise volley from the edge of the penalty area in the 56th minute.
Fiorentina striker Moise Kean ensured a calmer finish to the match, as he did everything beautifully in the 80th minute on Tonali's cross and made it 2:0 off the post, putting an end to this duel in which the Italians had no right to make a mistake.
They will not have the right to make a mistake on Tuesday either, when they face Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina in a decisive match to qualify for the planetary championship.
Another country from the former Yugoslavia – North Macedonia – has said goodbye to the dream of the World Cup.
The Macedonians fell in Copenhagen, where they lost convincingly to favored Denmark (4:0).
The Scandinavians only broke their rivals' resistance in the second half, when they scored all four goals.
Mikel Damsgard opened the scoring for the visitors in the 49th minute.
And then Adam Marušić's teammate from Lazio, Gustav Isaksen, scored two goals in a minute (58 and 59) and removed all doubts about advancing.
The match was ended by Christian Norgaard, assisted by his namesake Eriksen, in the 73rd minute.
Sweden, led by the team's star player Viktor Đokereš, defeated Ukraine in Valencia (3:1).
The Arsenal player scored a hat-trick.
Đokereš gave the nominal guests the lead in the sixth minute, and the same player doubled the lead in the 52nd minute.
He completed his hat-trick with a penalty kick in the 72nd minute.
A consolation goal for Ukraine was scored by Matvi Ponomarenko in the first minute of stoppage time.
Sweden will play against Poland in the World Cup qualifier, which came from behind to defeat Albania (2:1) in Warsaw.
Albania took the lead at the end of the first half with a goal from Dinamo Zagreb forward Arber Hoxha.
The home team captain, Robert Lewandowski, brought things back to an even level in the 63rd minute.
Ten minutes later, a complete turnaround was directed by Pjotr Zielinski. Both times, the assistant was Sebastian Szymanski.
Kosovo beat Slovakia in the final (4:3) in Bratislava, thus setting up a final with Turkey, which earlier today won by a narrow margin against Romania in Istanbul. The Kosovo-Turkey match will be played in Pristina.
The Slovaks led twice in the first half, but the guests turned it around to 4:2 through Aslani, Muslija and Hajziri, only for the home team's defeat to be mitigated by Strelec in the 94th minute.
