World Cup playoffs: Italy on edge, Sweden shorn of stars and another chance for Lewandowski

When Fabio Cannavaro raised aloft the golden World Cup trophy inside Berlin’s Olympic Stadium in 2006, few could have imagined the pain soccer’s biggest event would inflict on Italy over the next two decades.

In 2010, the Azzurri put up a woeful title defense, not even winning a game in an embarrassing group-stage exit. In 2014, they again didn’t reach the knockout stage, dumped out by a Uruguay goal scored soon after Luis Suarez bit Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

As for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, the Italians didn’t even get there, eliminated in the European playoffs in an utter humiliation for a soccer-mad nation.

No wonder the country is on edge this week.

Italy is back in the World Cup playoffs, one of 16 European teams competing for the four remaining spots from the continent for this summer’s tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The World Cup has never been bigger, enlarged to 48 countries, including 16 from Europe. And still Italy needs to get in via the back door, a bad look for a four-time world champion and a traditional hotbed for the sport.

Standing in Italy’s way in the playoff semifinals taking place across Europe on Thursday will be Northern Ireland in Bergamo. Win that — and the Azzurri are big favorites — and they’ll need to beat either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina to advance to the World Cup.

Italy is undoubtedly the big story from the playoff. Here are some more things to watch out for: Sweden shorn of its big names: It’s crunch time for Graham Potter.

The former Chelsea and West Ham coach was hired by Sweden last year, initially on a short-term deal and with one task — get the team to the World Cup.

That is still to be determined but Potter has clearly done enough in the meantime to impress the federation, which handed him a contract to 2030 last week.

It’s quite the show of support for Potter ahead of the playoffs, where Sweden faces war-torn Ukraine on neutral territory in Valencia, Spain. The winner will host Poland or Albania next week.

Unfortunately for Potter, he hasn’t got all of his big names available, with Premier League stars Alexander Isak and Dejan Kulusevski injured.

Ukraine still hosting matches on the road: Exactly four years ago, Ukraine could not play a scheduled World Cup qualifying playoffs semifinal in Scotland in the turmoil just weeks after the full Russian military invasion.

Ukraine eventually won 3-1 in Glasgow in June 2022, then lost the playoff final four days later in Wales to a goal by Gareth Bale.

Ukraine is back in the playoffs after four years of being unable to host any games on its own territory, still being bombed by Russia, which remains banned from international soccer.

Lewandowski’s last chance?: It’s always dangerous to write off the careers of soccer’s top players — Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo is likely headed to the World Cup at age 41, for example — but this might be Robert Lewandowski’s final shot at a World Cup.

The 37-year-old Barcelona striker had a brief spell away from Poland’s national team last year, making himself unavailable after he was stripped of the captaincy by then-coach Michal Probierz. Probierz resigned after Poland lost to Finland without Lewandowski, who promptly returned to the squad in August under new coach Jan Urban. Poland’s all-time top scorer regained the captain’s armband, too.

Lewandowski has recently been wearing a protective mask on his face during games after suffering fractured left eye socket.

Kosovo has been in a hurry: Kosovo is two games away from the World Cup, fewer than 10 years since the national team was out of the international soccer family.

It was in May 2016 that Kosovo and Gibraltar were voted into FIFA as its 210th and 211th member federations. That was eight years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in a move still not recognized by dozens of United Nations member states.

It also lets players with family ties to Kosovo declare for the team. Valon Berisha still plays for Kosovo a decade after ending his 20-game career with Norway.

Now, at just its third try to qualify for the men’s World Cup, Kosovo has been guided by German coach Franco Foda to a European qualifying playoff semifinal on Thursday at Slovakia. That was earned as runner-up in a qualifying group last year, won by Switzerland, placing above Slovenia and Sweden.

It is the first meeting between the teams because Slovakia is among the five European Union members that do not recognize Kosovo. Spain is another.