Italy practice penalty shoot out and name first choice taker
Gennaro Gattuso confirms Italy practiced penalties ahead of the World Cup play-off against Northern Ireland, and they have one specific player ready to step up to the spot.
The semi-final of the play-off is in Bergamo on Thursday at 19.45 GMT (20.45 CET).
Whoever wins that will go on to face either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina in the final on March 31 for a place at the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the USA.
Italy prepared for a long night in Bergamo
There is the possibility of extra time, and then if the teams still cannot be separated, they go to a penalty shoot-out.
This has crossed the mind of coach Gattuso, who confirms he had his team drilled in that art during training.
“We practiced yesterday, everyone did three penalties each, so we know this is a possibility, and we tried them out,” confessed the coach.
If Italy do receive a penalty during the match, who is the designated player to step up?
“Mateo Retegui has taken the most recent penalties, he is the taker.”
The Al-Qadsiah striker does have a decent record, although he did fail to convert for Italy in a 3-1 World Cup qualifying win away to Estonia in October 2025.
He converted the other two attempts for the Nazionale, both of them were against Israel in October 2024 and October 2025.
When it comes to penalty shoot-outs, Italy have won their last two, in the semi-final and final of EURO 2020 to defeat Spain and England on their way to lifting the trophy.
That is a significant improvement, as the Nazionale had famously lost their first four penalty shoot-outs in 1980, 1990, 1994 and 1998.
They above all celebrated when beating France this way to win the 2006 World Cup.
