Italy is the second-most successful men’s national team in World Cup history. Four stars sit above the Azzurri shirt: 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006. Every one of them came in a tournament where the rest of the world underestimated what Italy would do under pressure. But the story of Italian football at the World Cup is not only about triumphs — it is equally defined by devastating near-misses, bizarre collapses, and a stubborn, almost pathological belief that defending is an art form worthy of the same reverence other nations afford to attacking flair.
1934 & 1938 — Pozzo’s back-to-back
Vittorio Pozzo remains the only coach in history to have won two World Cups. Italy hosted the 1934 tournament during the fascist era under Mussolini, and there is no separating the football from the politics of the time — the regime saw the World Cup as a propaganda opportunity, and the tournament’s organization reflected that. On the pitch, however, Pozzo’s team was genuinely excellent. They beat Czechoslovakia 2–1 in extra time in the Rome final, with Angelo Schiavio scoring the winner.
Four years later, Italy travelled to France and retained the trophy. The 1938 squad featured Giuseppe Meazza — the playmaker whose name now adorns the San Siro stadium in Milan — and Silvio Piola, one of the great goalscorers of pre-war football. Italy beat Hungary 4–2 in the Paris final. No team would successfully defend the World Cup again until Brazil in 1962, and no European side has managed it to this day. Pozzo’s record stands alone.
1982 — Paolo Rossi’s month
After a 44-year drought, Italy arrived in Spain 1982 with expectations so low that the Italian press had all but written them off. They drew all three group games — 0–0 against Poland, 1–1 against Peru, 1–1 against Cameroon — and scraped through to the second group stage on goals scored. The squad was fractured by the Totonero match-fixing scandal that had rocked Italian football, and Paolo Rossi, the team’s centre-forward, had only just returned from a two-year ban related to that scandal. He had not scored in his first four tournament games. He looked finished.
Then came the match against Brazil in Barcelona on July 5, 1982 — a match now universally regarded as one of the greatest ever played. Brazil, led by Zico, Sócrates, Falcão, and Éder, needed only a draw to advance. They played with the samba joy and attacking abandon that had characterized their campaign. Rossi scored in the 5th minute. Brazil equalized. Rossi scored again in the 25th. Brazil equalized again, through Falcão. At 2–2, a draw would see Brazil through. But in the 74th minute, Rossi intercepted a poor clearance, controlled, and finished with clinical precision. Italy won 3–2. It was a seismic result.
Rossi then scored both goals in the 2–0 semi-final against Poland, and the opener in the final against West Germany. Italy won 3–1, with Marco Tardelli’s screaming, fist-pumping celebration after scoring the second goal becoming one of the tournament’s most enduring images. Coach Enzo Bearzot, who had been mocked by the media for months, had the last word. Rossi finished the tournament with six goals in three matches, won the Golden Boot, the Golden Ball, and the Ballon d’Or. Three weeks of matches had turned a player who looked washed up into a national legend.
1994 — The penalty miss
Twelve years later, Italy came within one kick of a fifth star. Roberto Baggio — the “Divine Ponytail,” a Buddhist, a maverick, and arguably the most naturally gifted Italian footballer of all time — dragged an exhausted, injury-ravaged Italy through USA 1994. He scored the decisive goal against Nigeria in the round of 16 (equalizing in injury time and then winning in extra time), scored against Spain in the quarter-final, and scored twice against Bulgaria in the semi-final. He did all of this while carrying a hamstring injury that limited his training to light sessions and painkillers.
The final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena against Brazil was scoreless after 120 minutes — the first World Cup final to be decided on penalties. Franco Baresi, Italy’s captain and greatest defender, missed the first penalty. When Baggio stepped up for Italy’s fifth, the shootout was effectively over; Brazil led 3–2 and needed only for Baggio to miss. He struck the ball high over the crossbar. The image of Baggio standing alone, hands on hips, head bowed, the Pasadena sun behind him, is one of the defining photographs of 1990s football. “That penalty,” Baggio would later write, “is something I carry with me every day.”
2006 — Lippi, Calciopoli, and defiance
The fourth title, won in Berlin in 2006, may be the most extraordinary of all — not because of the quality of the football, though that was often superb, but because of the circumstances surrounding it. In the weeks before the tournament began, Italian football was consumed by the Calciopoli scandal — a massive match-fixing investigation that revealed systematic corruption involving referees and several of Italy’s biggest clubs, including Juventus, Milan, Fiorentina, and Lazio. Juventus were eventually stripped of two Serie A titles and relegated to Serie B. Several members of the national squad played for implicated clubs. Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, and others flew to Germany knowing their domestic season would end in disgrace.
Coach Marcello Lippi used the scandal as a siege mentality. Italy played the tournament as an act of collective defiance — us against the world. The group stage was competent; the knockout rounds were electrifying. In the round of 16, they beat Australia 1–0 with a last-minute penalty. In the quarter-final, they dismantled Ukraine 3–0. The semi-final against Germany in Dortmund was a masterpiece — 90 minutes of tension, then two goals in the final two minutes of extra time from Fabio Grosso and Del Piero to win 2–0.
The final against France in Berlin was defined by its ending. Zinedine Zidane scored a chipped Panenka penalty early. Marco Materazzi — the same defender who had conceded the penalty — equalized with a header from a corner. The match went to extra time. In the 110th minute, after a verbal exchange that Materazzi later admitted included an insult about Zidane’s sister, the French captain turned and headbutted Materazzi in the chest. Zidane was sent off. The red card, the walk past the trophy, the tunnel — it became the most replayed moment in World Cup history. Italy won the shootout 5–3. Cannavaro lifted the cup and won the Ballon d’Or that year — one of only a handful of defenders ever to do so. Buffon was named the tournament’s best goalkeeper. Lippi had built a fortress out of chaos.
2018 & 2022 — The missing tournaments
Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup — the first time since 1958 — after losing a two-legged playoff to Sweden. The aggregate was 1–0, decided by a Jakob Johansson goal in the first leg. The second leg at San Siro ended 0–0, and veteran goalkeeper Buffon wept openly at the final whistle. It was his last international appearance.
The reasons for the failure were systemic. Italian football had stopped producing top-level forwards. The league was in financial decline. The tactical conservatism that had once been Italy’s strength — the ability to win 1–0 through organization and discipline — had calcified into an inability to create chances at all. The squad lacked pace, width, and a creative identity.
Under Roberto Mancini, Italy rebuilt spectacularly for Euro 2020 (played in the summer of 2021). They won the tournament with a vibrant, possession-based style that felt utterly new for the Azzurri, beating England on penalties in the Wembley final. Gianluigi Donnarumma was named player of the tournament. It felt like a rebirth.
The rebirth lasted eight months. In March 2022, Italy lost a World Cup playoff semi-final to North Macedonia — a country with a population smaller than Rome — at the Renzo Barbera stadium in Palermo. The score was 1–0, the winning goal a stoppage-time strike from Aleksandar Trajkovski. Italy had missed two consecutive World Cups. For a country with four stars on its shirt, it was not merely embarrassing; it was existential. Mancini left for a coaching role in Saudi Arabia.
2026 — Spalletti and the restoration
Under Luciano Spalletti — the coach who ended Napoli’s 33-year wait for a Serie A title in 2023 — Italy are attempting a genuine restoration. Spalletti’s tactical approach is specific and recognizable: a high defensive line, aggressive pressing, and a build-up that starts with the goalkeeper and relies on the full-backs pushing high and wide to create numerical superiority in midfield.
The squad he has built is not the most talented Italy have ever sent to a World Cup, but it may be one of the most cohesive. Nicolò Barella (Inter Milan) is the heartbeat — a midfielder who combines relentless energy with an eye for a decisive pass. Sandro Tonali (Newcastle United), back from a lengthy betting-related ban, provides composure and technical quality in the deeper role. Federico Dimarco (Inter Milan) offers a left foot of rare quality from left-back. Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal), still only 24, has emerged as a ball-playing centre-back of genuine international caliber — comfortable under pressure, aggressive in the tackle, and capable of stepping into midfield with the ball.
The striking options remain the biggest question mark. Gianluca Scamacca (Atalanta) has the physical presence and finishing ability to lead the line, but his consistency at international level has been uneven. Behind him, the creative burden falls on Lorenzo Pellegrini and the emerging talents of the next generation.
Italy enter the 2026 World Cup with something that has served them better than any tactical system across 90 years of tournament football: the expectation that they will be underestimated. Four stars still sit above the crest. The weight of two missed tournaments hangs over the squad. And Italy, as history has shown repeatedly, are at their most dangerous when the rest of the world has written them off.
