How Gattuso prepared Italy for Israel clash after hammering Estonia 5-0

Originally posted on Football Italia | By Peter Young | Last updated Sep 7, 2025 7:52 AM ET

Gennaro Gattuuso claimed a 5-0 victory in his first match as head coach of the Italy national team, but faces a short turnaround before the next World Cup qualifier against Israel on Monday night. Here is what the CT has done to prepare his players for their next international test.

The Azzurri are preparing to take on Israel in their fourth 2026 World Cup qualifier on Monday evening. Italy are currently third in the group with six points after three games. Israel are second with nine after four matches, while Norway lead the standings with a perfect record of 12 points from four matches.

Italy fell to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Norway on June 6, which led to the departure of Luciano Spalletti as CT and the subsequent appointment of Gattuso. Italy have since gone on to win both of their last two World Cup qualifiers.

How Gattuso is preparing Italy for Israel clash

The Nazionale have had two more training sessions since their 5-0 win over Estonia on Friday night.

A limited set of players trained on Saturday: The 11 starters against Estonia were all in recovery mode. They were: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Riccardo Calafiori, Alessandro Bastoni, Federico Dimarco, Nicolo Barella, Sandro Tonali, Matteo Politano, Moise Kean, Mattia Zaccagni and Mateo Retegui.

The Azzurri players were also brought in for a long video analysis session to prepare for their upcoming test against Israel.

The players have since trained again on Sunday morning, and are due to fly out to Debrecen, Hungary, where the Israel match will take place, at around 14.30 BST.

According to Corriere dello Sport, there are no injury or fitness concerns, aside from Gianluca Scamacca, who withdrew from the squad before the Estonia match due to an issue with his knee.

The only worries are disciplinary, with Bastoni and Davide Frattesi both carrying yellow cards.

In terms of tactics, Gattuso is expected to contine with either a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, as it was against Estonia. There had been suggestions that the CT was looking at deploying a 4-4-2 for his first match in charge, but that now appears unlikely for the Israel game, as Gattuso is not inclined to change the tactics of a winning team.

This article first appeared on Football Italia and was syndicated with permission.

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