Both sides secured victories in their last qualifying match. A brace each from Sørloth and Haaland saw Norway win 4-1 against Estonia, while Italy needed a pair of late goals from Gianluca Mancini and Pio Esposito in their 2-0 win away at Moldova.

The hosts actually are only three points behind Norway at the top of the group but in order to qualify for their first World Cup since 2014 automatically, they would need to win by a minimum of nine goals due to a 17 goal swing in favour of Norway.

The likely scenario for Italy is that they will have to face the dreaded World Cup playoffs once again, a format that has seen them fall in 2018 to Sweden and 2022 to North Macedonia.

Italy are dejected after losing in the World Cup qualifying playoff semi-final to North Macedonia. (Photo by Tullio M. Puglia/Getty Images) March 24, 2022, in Palermo, Italy.

Italy

With one eye on the playoff rounds, manager Gennaro Gattuso has confirmed that at least a couple of changes will be made to the team.

Sandro Tonali will miss tomorrow’s game due to being a single yellow card away from suspension, which the Azzurri can’t afford to risk ahead of the play-offs. Gattuso confirmed that Davide Frattesi will come into the midfield.

Riccardo Calafiori will also miss the game due to an ongoing hip issue from before the international break. It means that either Mancini or Alessandro Buongiorno will start in defence.

Norway

They got through the Estonia game without any new injury issues to deal with, so manager Ståle Solbakken will likely go with a very strong side to see out qualifying.

The only real bit of team news is that captain Martin Ødegaard is to travel to Milan with the rest of the squad to watch the game as he continues to recover from an MCL injury suffered during Arsenal’s 2-0 win over West Ham in October. He was with the team during the Estonia match as well.

Italy

Donnarumma; Di Lorenzo, Mancini, Bastoni; Dimarco, Politano, Barella, Locatelli Frattesi; Retegui, Esposito.

Norway

Nyland; Ryerson, Heggem, Ajer, Bjorkan; Bobb, Berg, Berge, Nusa; Sorloth, Haaland.

Norway – Erling Haaland

For club and country this season, Erling Haaland has been in red-hot form. He has already hit the 30-goal mark for club and country this season in the middle of November.

Unsurprisingly, there’s also yet another record up for Haaland this weekend, as he currently sits on 14 goals in the qualifiers. Two goals would see him tie Robert Lewandowski’s 16-goal record set during the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, yet another hat-trick would see him break the record.

There’s a good chance that he will at least match the record, seeing that the last time he didn’t score at least a brace in the UEFA qualifiers came in June against Estonia and Italy, although he still managed to get a goal in both games.

Italy – Pio Esposito

While on one side of the pitch, you’ve got the best striker in the world in Haaland, the other side contains a young Italian forward in Pio Esposito, who is looking to become the next top striker in the game.

After a successful loan spell in Serie B at Spezia, where he scored 19 times, Esposito has come into the Inter side and is performing well in both Serie A and the Champions League, where he has the second most G/A in the competition so far for Inter, with three.

Having scored in two of his last three national team appearances, Esposito is expected to start up front with last season’s Serie A golden boot winner, Mateo Retegui, and he will be hoping to impress in front of his home crowd at the San Siro.

The game will take place at the San Siro in Milan.

Kickoff is scheduled for 19:45 GMT

The game will be available to watch on Amazon Prime PPV.