Roberto Mancini's national team will resume their bid to reach Qatar 2022 in Palermo. The FIGC has chosen the 'Renzo Barbera' as the venue for the World Cup play-off between Italy and North Macedonia on Thursday, 24 March (20:45 CET). The FIGC president, Gabriele Gravina, made the announcement today, saying: "We spoke with Roberto Mancini and we chose Palermo. Starting from this evening, we want to begin to create a very special event, involving both the city of Palermo and the rest of Italy. With this announcement, we intend to round off an extraordinary 2021 season that culminated in the victory of the European Championship. Now we are starting a new phase, which will commence in Palermo".

It will be the 16th time that the Azzurri have played in Palermo (13 wins, one draw and one loss), which last year on 26 November, hosted the World Cup qualifying match between the Women's National team and Switzerland. The last match played by the Azzurri in the Sicilian capital dates back to 18 November 2019, when Italy beat Armenia 9-1 in the EURO 2020 qualifiers thanks to braces from Immobile and Zaniolo as well as goals from Barella, Romagnoli, Jorginho, Orsolini and Chiesa.

We have only had two previous encounters against North Macedonia, with Italy winning 3-2 in the first match played in October 2016 in Skopje and drawing 1-1 in the second match played in October 2017 at Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino.