{"id":583063,"date":"2025-11-20T18:35:25","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583063\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T18:35:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T18:35:25","slug":"fans-eye-an-upset-as-northern-ireland-handed-tough-italian-job-in-play-offs-for-world-cup-a-chance-to-redeem-ourselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/583063\/","title":{"rendered":"Fans eye an upset as Northern Ireland handed tough Italian job in play-offs for World Cup: \u2018A chance to redeem ourselves\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Green and White Army confident of revenge after losing 2-0 to Azzurri in 2022 qualifier\n<\/p>\n

The team are set to face the four-time World Cup winners in the semi-final play-offs<\/a> for next year\u2019s tournament on March 26.<\/p>\n

It probably wasn\u2019t the draw most were hoping for, as The Azzurri were the highest ranked country they could have drawn from pot one.<\/p>\n

Italy beat Northern Ireland 2-0 in a 2022 World Cup qualifier, but supporters are daring to believe history won\u2019t repeat itself.<\/p>\n

Belfast fan Kaitlyn McCullough said: \u201cItaly beat us last time, so this is a chance for us to redeem ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gary McAllister, chairman of the Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters\u2019 Clubs, believes it will be a tight match but believes Northern Ireland have improved enough since 2022 to take Italy by surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cItaly will be very tough opponents, but Northern Ireland has knocked Italy out of a World Cup before, so we have to give it our best effort,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be planning to travel for the game, and hopefully Italy won\u2019t keep us waiting too long for the venue details.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is growing speculation it could be in Bergamo, home of Atalanta.<\/p>\n

To get to the New Balance Arena, fans would need to fly into Milan Bergamo Airport, which is a 10-minute drive from the stadium.<\/p>\n

There are no direct flights from Belfast to Bergamo, so supporters will need to leave out of Dublin.<\/p>\n

\"Alastair<\/p>\n

Alastair McCann and Italy\u2019s Manuel Locatelli during the World Cup qualifier at Windsor Park in 2021, which ended 0-0. Italy won the return fixture 2-0<\/p>\n

Flights around the time of the match would average about \u00a3269, with a hotel costing \u00a3100 per night.<\/p>\n

Supporters can expect to pay \u20ac6 (\u00a35.28) for a pint , \u20ac20 (\u00a317.61) for a meal in an inexpensive restaurant, and \u20ac2.90 (\u00a32.55) for a soft drink.<\/p>\n

Superfan Gary Shufflebottom told the Belfast Telegraph: \u201cVisiting-wise, it\u2019s worked out well, but probably the worst football-wise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be very difficult but we have an outside chance if we have a full squad. I do hope to make it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow supporter Ryan Martin said: \u201cI will absolutely travel to Italy, and with the Green and White Army behind the team, we are extremely capable of going and winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland qualified for their first World Cup in 1958 by beating the Italians 2-1.<\/p>\n

Ryan is hopeful history can repeat itself and the team can make their way into the play-off final and a chance of making next year\u2019s tournament hosted jointly by the USA, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cItaly will be a very tough game and obviously it would have been ideal to not get them \u2014 but we have some fantastic players in Bradley and Price, who can make a moment out of nothing, as well as Galbraith and McNair.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Green and White Army confident of revenge after losing 2-0 to Azzurri in 2022 qualifier The team are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1611,1144,8538,16,15,1514],"class_list":{"0":"post-583063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-jessica-rice","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-northern-ireland-football-team","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-world-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115583473176350231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}