Kick-off on March 26, 2026, at 21:45.

In the playoff semi-finals of the qualifying tournament for the World Cup, the Italy — Northern Ireland match will take place at the New Balance Arena. The history of confrontations between these national teams includes eleven meetings, in which the Italians won seven times, the Northern Irish triumphed once, and three more matches ended in a draw. The last time the teams met was in the qualification for the 2022 World Cup, when the Italian team won a confident 2-0 victory at home.

Italy has become the world champion four times, but has not participated in the tournament since 2014. For the national team, this is already the third consecutive qualifying cycle that ends in the play-off stage after past failures in matches against Sweden and North Macedonia. The team began the current qualification with a major defeat by Norway, which led to the resignation of Luciano Spalletti. Under the leadership of the new head coach, Gennaro Gattuso, the Italian footballers produced a series of six victories in a row, but in the final round of the group stage, they again lost to the Norwegians.

Watch the Italy — Northern Ireland match on March 26, 2026, online on MEGOGO.

Northern Ireland approaches the trip to Bergamo with difficult statistics, as the team lost all previous away meetings against this opponent and has not scored against it since 1961. The most significant achievement of the team in recent decades was reaching the 1/8 finals of Euro 2016. In the current qualifying cycle, Michael O'Neill's charges took third place in the group after Germany and Slovakia, but got a chance in the play-offs thanks to successful results in the Nations League. The guest will try to break the historic goalless streak and impose a fight on the favorite in every part of the field.

Watch the broadcast of the Italy — Northern Ireland match on March 26, 2026, online on MEGOGO.