Dzeko, that video and the weather: Three issues facing Italy ahead of play-off final

Italy are preparing to take on Bosnia and Herzegovina in the World Cup play-off final on Tuesday evening, but aside from the threats posed by Edin Dzeko, his teammates, and the viral video clip of Federico Dimarco mid-celebration, the weather could also now come into play. 

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Three issues facing Italy ahead of World Cup play-off final

Italy beat Northern Ireland 2-0 in Bergamo in Thursday’s World Cup play-off semi-final thanks to second-half goals from Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean, which set up a final date with Bosnia and Herzegovina, who beat Wales on penalties in Cardiff. 

It took just a matter of minutes after Thursday’s semi-finals came to an end for controversy to cloud over the Italy national team, when Rai decided to broadcast a video of Dimarco and a handful of his colleagues celebrating Bosnia’s penalty shoot-out victory over Wales. 

• Read more: Dimarco unwise to celebrate, but televising incident only harms Italy

The video has caused mixed reactions, many negative, particularly in Bosnia, for whom the clip has only served as additional motivation heading into Tuesday’s play-off final. 

Dimarco has since come out and insisted that he was filmed in a private setting, did not mean to cause any disrespect and has hushed claims that he and his teammates were arrogant by pointing to the fact that Italy have not qualified for the World Cup for the last 12 years. 

Of course, it would be a sign of disrespect in itself to suggest that the now infamous video clip is the only threat posed against Italy heading into Tuesday’s World Cup decider.

Bosnia have qualified by attaining a similar set of results to Italy over the World Cup qualifying campaign and have players of their own that can threaten the Azzurri, from the legendary Dzeko to the Serie A-accustomed Tariq Muharmovic and Sead Kolasinac, to the exciting talent of Kerim Alajbegovic. 

And now, according to the latest updates, the weather in a freezing Zenica, where rain and snow continues to fall, is the latest issue heading into the World Cup play-off final. 

According to meridiansport.ba, heaters are being used on the pitch for the first ever time in Bosnia in an attempt to clear the snow and ice from the pitch in time for the play-off decider, which kicks off at 19.45 BST on Tuesday evening.