Italy will face Moldova at the Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore on Monday in another round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The home side have endured a difficult run of results in recent games and have begun their qualifying campaign on the wrong foot.
They were beaten 3-0 by group leaders Norway in their opening qualifying game on Saturday, conceding all three goals in the first half and could have no major complaints about the result after a flat performance on the road. Luciano Spalletti's men will be desperate to get their first win next week as they look to return to the global stage for the first time since 2014.
Moldova, meanwhile, have endured a perhaps expectedly poor start to their World Cup qualifying campaign, suffering a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Norway in their group opener before losing 3-2 on home turf to Estonia in their second game. They faced Poland in friendly action last time out, losing 2-0, and have work to do on Monday.
The visitors sit at the bottom of Group I with zero points and will be looking to pick up an unlikely result next week.
Italy are winless in their last four matches, with three of those games ending in defeat. They are, however, the far stronger side ahead of Monday's game and should have little trouble winning this one comfortably.
Moldova have also lost three of their last four games after winning just one of their previous five. They are badly mismatched heading into the midweek clash and will only be looking to avoid a blowout defeat.
Prediction: Italy 4-0 Moldova
Tip 1 - Result: Italy to win
Tip 2 - Goals - Over/under 2.5 - Over 2.5 goals (Eight of the hosts' last nine matches have produced more than 2.5 goals)
Tip 3 - Both teams to score: No (Both sides have found the back of the net in just two of the visitors' last 10 matches)