This article contains adult content that may be inappropriate for minors. Please confirm that you are 18 years or older to continue. This article contains images or details that some readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised. Between pessimism and optimism: the Italian press takes different stances regarding the decisive match of Gennaro Gattuso's team this Thursday: the first of two finals to qualify for the World Cup against Northern Ireland, aiming to avoid a third consecutive absence (and humiliation) from the biggest football tournament in the world. To emphasize the long 12 years since Italy's last World Cup appearance – in Brazil, where they were eliminated in the group stage – Corriere dello Sport features on its front page an image of young people and children cheering for the squadra azzurra. A false image, as the newspaper itself explains in its editorial. "The front-page image was generated by AI: we have never found young people so happy to cheer for the national team," journalist Ivan Zazzaroni ironically states, but based on facts: "Many of us think, above all, of the millions of young people under 20 who have never seen the azzurri in the final stages of the world's most prestigious competition." The also prestigious Gazzetta dello Sport offers a note of confidence for the Italian team, aiming to avoid a third consecutive elimination in the World Cup qualifying play-off (having lost to Sweden in 2017 and to North Macedonia in 2022). "In the past, a match against Northern Ireland would have been a simple warm-up for the World Cup, far from being a major power, especially away from Belfast; we are playing for the first half of the journey to the United States, because if we get past this first phase, there will be another. At this stage, excuses no longer matter. Only victory for the World Cup counts. There's no point in being snobbish; from now on, every game is a final." Gazzetta urges the team to make Italians "dream" and to "move forward without fear," identifying fear as an obstacle to overcome. "Fear is an additional enemy; we tend to falter in the face of the first obstacle," the newspaper writes. If Italy overcomes Northern Ireland, with the match taking place in Bergamo, they will compete for the coveted World Cup spot against the winner of the duel between Wales and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
World Cup Gennaro Gattuso remains central to this story.
World Cup Gennaro Gattuso remains central to this story.
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