Israel v Italy: Line-ups, stats and preview

Israel v Italy preview

Gennaro Gattuso will hope his first away game as Italy manager proves as successful as his home bow following the Azzurri’s 5-0 thrashing of Estonia in Bergamo, where their goals came during the second half through Moise Kean, Giacomo Raspadori, Alessandro Bastoni and two from Mateo Retegui.

The result means Italy will move above second-placed Israel and three points behind group leaders Norway with a game in hand on both teams if they win the fourth match of their qualifying campaign in Debrecen.

“We showed a lot of hunger and that we want to fight and to maintain this form,” said Al-Qadsiah forward Retegui, whose goals comprised a header and precise strike.

“We put in a good performance and played some great football. It was my first time playing with Moise; this is a great group. We need to keep this up.”

Dror Peretz, Manor Solomon, Tai Baribo and Oscar Gloukh scored as Israel secured their third win in the group with a 4-0 victory in Moldova on the same evening.

“We have big ambitions – to win both matches,” manager Ran Ben Shimon said before the game, via The Jerusalem Post.

“We want to be competitive against Italy and fight for second place, as that’s one of our main goals.

“We’re on a trajectory with players we believe are in the best form for each position, alongside players we consider key partners even if they’re not in their best form or not playing much.”

The top team from each of the 12 European Qualifier groups proceeds automatically to the finals, which will be expanded to 48 teams.

Nations are eliminated if they finish third or below and enter the play-offs between March 26-31 2026 if they come second.

Israel v Italy team news

New Ferencvaros signing Gavriel Kanichowsky will be on reasonably familiar territory in Hungary after being restored to Israel’s squad, potentially giving the midfielder a first international appearance since his side’s 4-1 defeat in Italy in the Nations League last October.

“I’ve explained in previous camps that there’s strong competition in midfield, with outstanding players,” said Ben Shimon.

“These are different phases. From day one… I stayed in touch with [Kanichowsky] the whole time. He deserves the call-up.”

זה מה שהיה לדניאל פרץ לומר לשחקנים רגע לפני העלייה לדשא למשחק נגד מולדובה 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/8qtSBDTCTw

— ISRAEL FA (@ISRAELFA) September 6, 2025

Daniel Peretz remains Ben Shimon’s first choice despite being an unused substitute in the goalkeeper’s first three matches of his loan spell with Hamburg from Bayern Munich.

“I try to help as much as I can, but often he’s the one who strengthens me,” said Ben Shimon. “Hamburg is a club with 50,000 season ticket holders, one of the biggest platforms in Europe.

“Even though there were high expectations and he hasn’t played, he needs to deal with that.”

Atalanta’s Gianluca Scamacca withdrew from Italy’s squad with an inflammatory condition in the forward’s left knee.

Bologna midfielder Giovanni Fabbian and new Liverpool centre-back Giovanni Leoni have been called up for the first time but were left out of the matchday squad against Estonia.

Inter striker Francesco Pio Esposito, 20, made his debut as a substitute in that game, in which Gattuso often adopted a 3-3-4 formation.

Israel v Italy predicted line-ups

Israel starting XI: Daniel Peretz, Eliazer Dasa, Stav Lemkin, Idan Nachmias, Roy Revivo, Dor Peretz, Eliel Peretz, Dan Biton, Oscar Gloukh, Manor Solomon, Tai Baribo

Italy starting XI: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Alessandro Bastoni, Riccardo Calafiori, Federico Dimarco, Nicolo Barella, Manuel Locatelli, Sandro Tonali, Matteo Politano, Mateo Retegui, Mattia Zaccagni

How to watch Israel v Italy: TV channel, live online streams

Kick-off on Monday is at 19:45 BST (14:45 ET / 11:45 PT), with live coverage in the UK on Amazon Prime Video pay-per-view, which charges £2.49 for the game.

Israel v Italy stats

• Israel’s only loss in their seven games since that setback in Italy was a 4-2 defeat to Norway in Debrecen on March 25
• They have won all of their other five games since November 24, including home wins over Belgium, Estonia and Slovakia
• Peretz has gone more than three-and-a-half hours without conceding since Mattias Kait scored in Estonia’s 3-1 defeat at home to Israel on June 6
• The only occasion on which Israel have failed to score in their last 11 games was a 0-0 draw in France in the Nations League last November
• Before the matches on September 7, only Czechia (37) and Wales (35) had bettered Israel’s total of 33 attempts on target during the campaign
• Only Norway and Croatia (13) had eclipsed their goal tally of 11 at that point
• Italy goalkeeper Donnarumma has not conceded in almost four hours since Erling Haaland scored against him in the 3-0 defeat in Norway on June 6
• Raspadori’s 10th international goal has put the Atletico Madrid forward one ahead of 2006 World Cup-winning striker Francesco Totti
• Fiorentina forward Kean scored his eighth Italy goal against Estonia
• The Azzurri’s only clean sheet in their last nine matches outside of Italy came in a 1-0 win in Belgium in the Nations League last November
• Czechia (31), Montenegro (29) and Poland (27) were the only teams in European qualifying to have sent more attempts off target than Italy (25) before the start of play on September 7

Israel v Italy prediction

Italy have won six and drawn one of their seven meetings with Italy and are hefty favourites to prevail against opponents 64 places below them in Fifa’s rankings.

Although they are something of an unknown quantity under Gattuso, their total of 17 first-half attempts against Estonia was the most they had produced before the break in a game for more than six years, so we can perhaps expect at least three goals between the teams. Back Italy to win 3-1.