World Cup qualifiers on all continents are about to start in full swing, with two European play-offs that have attracted much attention, namely the Italian men's football team against the North Macedonia men's football team, and the Portuguese men's football team against the Turkish men's football team, all playing at 3:45 a.m. Beijing time on March 25.
The European World Preliminary Tournament play-offs are all single-game knockout systems, so which team loses means that they miss the World Cup, and the format is very cruel. Portugal and Italy, the last two European Cup winners, are in the same group, so only one team has the potential to qualify for the World Cup, and the other team can only be reduced to spectators.
Compared with Portugal's 5 consecutive participations, Italy's absence from the 2018 World Cup naturally does not want to be out of the game for 2 consecutive years. As the world cup four-crowned team, Italy is a traditional strong team, losing to Sweden in the 2018 World Cup two legs and falling in the play-off stage.
Originally, Italy could go straight to the World Cup, but in the group stage, due to the goal difference behind Switzerland, it was second in the group and entered the play-off stage again. In order to return to the World Cup stage, the Italian team also fought.
According to the latest roster of the Italian team, João Pedro, who plays as a striker, and Luis Felipe, who plays as a defender, are selected to represent the team in the World Preliminary Tournament. João Pedro and Luis Felipe, both former Brazilians, came to Play in Serie A a few seasons ago and are now naturalised to play for Italy.
As early as the end of November last year, the Milano Sport revealed that the Italian Football Association was naturalizing 3 Brazilian players, in addition to João Pedro and Luis Felipe, as well as the centre-back Ibanez aiming to play for Roma, and whether Ibanez was naturalized is still unknown.
Even a World Cup champion like Italy has to improve its strength through naturalized players, so it is not surprising that the Chinese men's football team naturalized Brazilians such as Luo Guofu, Alain, Fernando, and Gaulat.
Italy are about to sit at home against North Macedonia, and the two teams have only met twice in the 2018 World Preliminary Round, with Italy drawing 1-1 at home and winning 3-2 away to North Macedonia. Italy is ranked 6th in the world, North Macedonia is 67th in the world, and the 12 teams in the play-offs are the highest and lowest in the world rankings, and the Italian team can play normally and steadily.
To advance to the group final, Italy has one more win, the opponent is the winner between Portugal and Turkey, and it is generally optimistic that Italy and Portugal will compete for a World Cup place. Portugal lacks a number of main players, coupled with the fact that Ronaldo is not in the best form, Italy has greater hopes of qualifying for the World Cup.