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Scamacca and Buongiorno recalled for Italy’s World Cup qualifiers

Gennaro Gattuso recalled Gianluca Scamacca and Alessandro Buongiorno on Friday as he named a squad which contained few surprises for Italy’s final World Cup qualifying group games against Moldova and Norway.

Elia Caprile gets his first Italy call-up with the Cagliari goalkeeper stepping in for the injured Alex Meret who has a fractured metatarsal.

Meret’s Napoli teammate Buongiorno returns to the fold after missing both of this season’s international breaks with injury, as does Atalanta striker Scamacca, who last played for Italy at Euro 2024.

Italy face Group I’s bottom team Moldova in Chisinau on Thursday before welcoming leaders Norway to the San Siro the following Sunday.

The Azzurri are guaranteed at least a spot in the qualifying play-offs after securing second place in the group with wins over Estonia and Israel last month.

Three points separate them from Norway who will effectively seal top spot and direct qualification for the World Cup if they beat Estonia just before Italy take on Moldova.

Norway’s goal difference is 16 better than Italy’s, meaning a huge turnaround in that statistic would be needed for Gattuso’s team to snatch first place, even if the two teams were to finish the group level on points.

Italy are therefore very likely to take part in the play-offs, from which they failed to qualify for the previous two World Cups.

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