Spectacle in the World Cup qualification
Nine goals – Italy wins wild game against Israel
Updated on 09.09.2025 – 8:02 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The former European champion played a two-goal lead to save the three points in added time. The new trainer is able to make the perfect debut.
Italy won a turbulent game in the World Cup qualification. The team of coach Gennaro Gattuso prevailed 5: 4 (1: 1) against Israel – and after two residues. The Italians in Group I are now like Israel at nine points and approached Leaders Norway to three points.
Manuel Locatelli provided an early setback with an own goal (16th). Moise Kean from the AC Florence equalized before the break (40th). After the again tour of Dor Peretz (52nd), Kean hit again (54th) before Matteo Politano (59.) and Joker Giacomo Raspadori (81.) turned the game to Italy’s favor. But Alessandro Bastoni (87th, own goal) and again Peretz (89.) brought Israel back into play. Only in added time did Sandro Tonali (90.+1) make the winning goal.
Gattuso, successor to Luciano Spalletti since June, is to lead the Squadra Azzurra to the 2026 World Cup after two missed tournaments. After the clear 5-0 against Estonia in his first game, he initially experienced a false start in the Hungarian debrecen. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma promoted the ball into his own goal after a corner, but referee Slavko Vincic decided on offensive foul-the video assistant Christian Dingert and Sascha Stegemann also did not intervene.
Shortly afterwards, a bad pass from Nicolò Barella Italy’s keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma forced to a risky tackle, but the penalty whistle failed. A little later, another mistake initiated the own goal of Locatelli on the defensive.
Israel, who has been playing his home games in Hungary since October 2023, had won 4-0 in Moldau a few days earlier. The team competed in Debrecen with a mourning flor. The background was a terrorist attack in Jerusalem on Monday, in which six people were killed. Some Italian supporters showed protest signs with the inscription “Stop” during the Israeli hymn – probably the request to terminate the Gaza War.