2026 World Cup: Italy vs. Norway at the Meazza Stadium on November 16

The Azzurri will return to Milan eight months after their defeat to Germany in the first leg of their Nations League quarter-finals. Milan's Stadio Giuseppe Meazza will host Italy-Norway on Sunday 16 November (8:45 pm), the national team's final match in Group I of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Italy will resume their World Cup qualifying campaign on September 5 and 8, facing Estonia in Bergamo and Israel on neutral ground in Debrecen. In their first two group matches, played last June, Italy lost 3-0 to Norway in Oslo and then beat Moldova 2-0 in Reggio Emilia. The Azzurri currently sit third in the standings, three points behind Israel and nine points behind Norway, who have played one and two games more, respectively.

The group winner will qualify for the World Cup finals, while the second-placed team will have to secure a spot at the World Cup through the play-offs.

Meazza Stadium, Milan (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

Milan is the second city after Rome to have hosted the most national team matches (63 compared to the 65 played in the capital - a record of 39 wins, 19 draws and 5 defeats) and home to the Italian Football Federation between 1905 and 1911. Milan has seen Italy take to the field in four different stadiums: the Arena Civica, the Velodromo Sempione (demolished in 1928), the Campo Milan on Viale Lombardia and the San Siro Stadium, which has been named after Giuseppe Meazza since 3 March 1980.

In the Lombard capital, the Azzurri have maintained an unbeaten run that has almost reached a century, 96 years to be exact: from the 1-2 defeat in January 1925 against Hungary (at the Campo Milan, while in 1911 the other defeat against the Hungarians came at the Arena Civica) to the 1-2 defeat in October 2021 against Spain at the 'Meazza'. The national team's biggest victory in Milan is Italy-France 9-4 on 18 January 1920, while Austria is the most faced opponent (6 times), followed by Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary and Portugal (5).