Italy national football team

• 1. Introduction

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  Italy's national football team played its first official match on the 15th of May 1910, defeating France 6-2 in Milan. Pietro Lana scored the very first goal, and the squad lined up in a 2-3-5 formation with Francesco Cali as captain. What followed across more than a century of football would be four World Cup titles, two European Championships, a world record unbeaten streak, and then three consecutive failures to qualify for a World Cup. How does a team that held the Jules Rimet Trophy from 1938 until 1950 because World War II cancelled the tournament end up losing a play-off to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2026? The answer runs through plane crashes and match-fixing scandals, through Benito Mussolini's alleged telegrams and Roberto Baggio's missed penalty, through the aging legend Gino Colaussi scoring in Paris and a young Gianluigi Donnarumma lifting a trophy at Wembley. The Azzurri are as blue as the House of Savoy, and their story is never straightforward.

• 2. The Pozzo Era

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  Coach Vittorio Pozzo guided the national team to back-to-back World Cup titles in 1934 and 1938, a feat no other manager has matched. Italy hosted the 1934 tournament and opened with a 7-1 dismantling of the United States in Rome. The final against Czechoslovakia ended 2-1 in extra time, with goals from Raimundo Orsi and Angelo Schiavio sealing the victory.

  Giuseppe Meazza was the defining player of those years. He is regarded by some as the finest Italian footballer of all time, and his performances across both tournaments were central to Italy's success.

  In 1938, the team wore black kits in France, ordered by Mussolini's fascist regime. A story circulated for decades that before the final against Hungary, Mussolini sent a telegram reading "Vincere o morire!" - Win or die. World Cup player Pietro Rava flatly denied the account when interviewed, saying the telegram simply wished the team well. Italy beat Hungary 4-2, with Gino Colaussi and Silvio Piola each scoring twice. Italy became the first team in history to defend a World Cup title, and due to the outbreak of World War II, they held the trophy for a further twelve years before competition resumed.

• 3. Disaster and Rebuilding

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  In 1949, a plane crash devastated the Italian side. Ten of the eleven players who made up the first-choice lineup were killed. The victims were predominantly members of Torino, who had won the previous five Serie A championships. The psychological impact extended beyond the grief: at the 1950 World Cup, Italy travelled by boat rather than by plane, unwilling to risk the air.

  The 1950 tournament brought elimination in the group stage. The 1954 and 1962 editions ended the same way. Italy failed to qualify for 1958 at all, losing a decisive play-off match to Northern Ireland 2-1.

  The lowest point of this period came at the 1966 World Cup. Italy entered as favourites. They lost 1-0 to North Korea, a semi-professional side. The squad, which included Gianni Rivera and Giacomo Bulgarelli, was humiliated. When the players returned home, furious fans threw fruit and rotten tomatoes at their transport bus. North Korea's scorer Pak Doo-ik was celebrated internationally as the underdog who had beaten Goliath. The memory of that afternoon would follow the Azzurri for years.

• 4. The Game of the Century

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  In the 1968 European Championship, Italy hosted the tournament and reached the final against Yugoslavia in Rome. The final itself ended 1-1 after extra time. Rules at the time required a replay, and a few days later Italy won 2-0, with goals from Gigi Riva and Pietro Anastasi. This remains the only time in the history of either the European Championship or the World Cup that a final was replayed.

  Two years later, Italy reached the 1970 World Cup final. Getting there required surviving what became known as the Game of the Century: the semi-final against West Germany. Italy won 4-3 in extra time. Five of the seven goals arrived during those thirty additional minutes, producing one of the most dramatic matches in the tournament's history.

  Brazil defeated Italy 4-1 in the final, and the loss stayed lodged in Italy's memory. The two nations share nine World Cup titles between them, and their rivalry is known as the World Derby. Their meetings in the 1970 and 1994 finals became defining moments for both.

• 5. 1982: Paolo Rossi's Return

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  Paolo Rossi arrived at the 1982 World Cup only recently returned from suspension. He had been banned following a match-fixing and illegal-betting scandal in Serie A. The Azzurri drew all three of their first-round matches against Poland, Peru, and Cameroon, drawing loud criticism at home. Coach Enzo Bearzot and captain Dino Zoff responded by imposing a press blackout. Only they would speak to journalists.

  In the second round, Italy faced a group of death containing Argentina and Brazil. The Brazil match was extraordinary. Italy twice led, Brazil twice equalised. When Falcao scored to make it 2-2, Brazil needed only a draw to advance. In the 74th minute, Rossi scored his third goal of the match, completing a hat-trick in a crowded penalty area. Italy went through.

  On the 11th of July 1982 in Madrid, Italy met West Germany in the final. Antonio Cabrini missed a first-half penalty. In the second half, Rossi scored first, then Marco Tardelli's screaming celebration after his goal became one of the defining images of Italian football. Alessandro Altobelli added a third. Forty-year-old goalkeeper Dino Zoff became the oldest player ever to win the World Cup. Rossi won both the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.

• 6. Baggio's Penalty and Other Near Misses

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  Roberto Baggio scored in three consecutive World Cups, the only Italian player to achieve that. In 1994, he kept Italy alive almost single-handedly. Down 0-1 late in the round of 16 against Nigeria, Baggio equalised in the 88th minute and then scored a penalty in extra time. He scored twice against Bulgaria in the semi-finals. Italy played all their early-round matches in the northeastern United States and then travelled 2,700 miles (4,320 km) across three time zones to reach the final at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, having had 24 hours less rest than Brazil.

  The final ended 0-0 after 120 minutes. Baggio, playing with a pain-killer injection and a heavily bandaged hamstring, took the decisive penalty. He sent it over the crossbar. Italy lost the first World Cup final ever decided on penalties.

  In 2000 at the European Championship, Italy reached the final against France, leading until virtually the last seconds of normal time. France equalised 30 seconds before the end of injury time, then won with a golden goal in extra time. Coach Dino Zoff resigned in protest after being criticised publicly by AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi. At the 1998 World Cup, Italy had faced host nation France in the quarter-finals and lost on penalties for the third consecutive World Cup. Francesco Totti's chip penalty - the cucchiaio - against the Netherlands at Euro 2000, which goalkeeper Francesco Toldo saved during the same match, offered a fleeting glimpse of the theatrical at its best.

• 7. Berlin 2006

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  On the 9th of July 2006, Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring in the World Cup final from the penalty spot in the seventh minute. Marco Materazzi equalised from a corner kick twelve minutes later. During extra time, Zidane headbutted Materazzi and was sent off. Italy won the penalty shootout 5-3, with Fabio Grosso scoring the decisive kick.

  Gianluigi Buffon conceded only two goals across the entire tournament - an own goal by Zaccardo and Zidane's penalty in the final - and remained unbeaten for 460 consecutive minutes. He won the Lev Yashin Award as the tournament's best goalkeeper. FIFA named seven Italians to the tournament's All Star Team: Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluca Zambrotta, Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, Francesco Totti, and Luca Toni.

  In the semi-final against Germany, played in Germany, Italy won 2-0 with goals from Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero in the final minutes of extra time. A fourth gold star was added to the Italian badge. Members of the squad received the Italian Order of Merit of Cavaliere. It was the height of everything the Azzurri had built. Three years later, at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, they became only the third nation ever to be eliminated in the group stage while holding the World Cup title.

• 8. Three Absences

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  Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, losing 1-0 on aggregate to Sweden in the play-offs. It was the first time the team had missed a World Cup since 1958. Gianluigi Buffon, who holds the Italian record with 176 caps, announced his retirement from international football after the match. Andrea Barzagli and Daniele De Rossi did the same.

  Roberto Mancini was appointed coach in May 2018. His team went unbeaten from October 2018 until October 2021, a run of 37 consecutive official matches without defeat that stands as a world record. They qualified for Euro 2020 with ten wins from ten qualifying matches. At the delayed tournament, Italy became the first team in European Championship history to win every group stage match without conceding a goal. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma won the Player of the Tournament award after Italy beat England at Wembley on penalties on the 11th of July 2021.

  That unbeaten record ended in the Nations League semi-final against Spain at the San Siro in October 2021. Five months later, Italy lost a World Cup play-off at home to North Macedonia, the country's first-ever home defeat in World Cup qualifying. For the 2026 World Cup, Gennaro Gattuso, himself a member of the 2006 championship squad, took over as coach in June 2025. On the 31st of March 2026, Italy lost on penalties to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the play-offs, marking a third consecutive absence from the World Cup. Within two days, the federation president, the head of delegation Buffon, and Gattuso all resigned.