Israel set for pivotal World Cup qualifiers against Norway, Italy

With key road tests at Norway and Italy, Ben Shimon’s squad aims to keep World Cup dream alive.

The Israel National Team will get back to World Cup qualifying with a pair of matches, as they will visit Norway on Saturday night and then travel to Italy for a Tuesday night clash.

The blue-and-white will try to put itself in position to move into second place in Group I play, which would punch its ticket to the grandest tournament the world of sports has to offer.

Ran Ben Shimon’s squad currently sits in third place, level on nine points with second-place Italy, which has a game in hand. The last time the two sides met was back in September in a game that was talked about around the globe, which resulted in a 5-4 Italy victory in Debrecen. The Hungarian city has served as Israel’s home-away-from-home due to the ongoing conflict with Hamas.

Norway, which sit at the top of the group with a perfect 15 points, faced Israel back in March and defeated the blue-and-white 4-2, as superstar striker Erling Haaland scored the fourth goal of that game. Following the two games this coming week, Israel will have one match remaining in the qualification phase, which will be against Moldova in a “home” game that will be played in Chișinău rather than in Hungary in order to save costs.

After the head coach named the squad for the upcoming pair of clashes – which included Villarreal star Manor Solomon, Ajax’s Oscar Gloukh, Muhammed Abu Fani of Ferencváros, as well as Philadelphia Union striker Tai Baribo and New England Revolution forward Dor Turgeman, to name a few – Ben Shimon looked ahead to the two matches.

'We want more than that'

“I am hearing about fear of the game against Norway, but we’re not afraid. Our goal is not just to ‘get through the game safely’; that’s not our objective. We want more than that. We’ve had good results against them, and even against Norway we were 1-1 at halftime. We didn’t play the way I wanted to in the previous match against them. It’s a tough test, but not an impossible one. We want to win and continue to play well.”

“Against Italy, we already saw progress. The journey in this game was exceptional – no other sport concedes goals like that and still manages to stay in the contest. The match against Italy summed up the path that Israeli football has taken. It’s important for me that the nation and the country unite and take pride in the national team.”

Ben Shimon dug deeper into the defeat to Italy and whether the players can face the Azzurri again after such a traumatic game.

“I’m against labeling things. I won’t define something that happened to the Israel National Team, and I don’t listen to background noise. If the reason for Italy’s goals was a lack of commitment, I’d be angry, but that wasn’t the situation. There’s room to improve our approach and mentality.”

The war with Hamas has obviously taken a toll on everyone, including the players, who have not been able to play at home since the outbreak on October 7, 2023.

“We believe in a professional approach to this match,” said Ben Shimon. “Our ability to lift the mood in the team and the nation comes from focusing on improving the team and staying focused without distractions from the outside. I can say that for two straight campaigns we’ve been operating under this atmosphere outside of Israel. We’re part of that – the entire Israeli society is dealing with this. My job is to keep the players focused, and we’ll deal with the atmosphere.”

The atmosphere both inside and outside the stadium does have the potential to create turmoil, whether it be unruly funs or pro-Palestinian protestorts.

“I don’t let the atmosphere get into the team’s mindset,” added Ben Shimon. “The players deserve 100% of our energy, and others can deal with everything else. We’re fully focused on the professional side. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I’m responsible for making the best choices. I’m here for all the players, especially the key ones. Sometimes one is better and another is less so.”

There was plenty of second-guessing after the Italy game, when Daniel Peretz started despite not having played a real role with Hamburg since signing with the German club.

“The criticism toward the goalkeepers isn’t fair, but anyone can say what they want. I reserve the right to assess them every time. I trust Peretz and Glazer 100%. We have two top-class goalkeepers – that’s, in my view, our strongest position.”

There is a lot of importance being placed on these two upcoming qualifiers – and not just because the blue-and-white want to stay in contention. Ben Shimon explained: “These two games are very important to me. We’re aiming to succeed long-term, but also focusing on the here and now. Since the Italy match, we’ve been thinking about beating both Italy and Norway. We’re not comfortable with third place. I have a lot of respect for the entire staff and squad.”

The bench boss took a more in-depth look at the two upcoming opponents.

“Norway’s quality really concerns me. There haven’t been major changes in the Norwegian squad, but there have been big changes on our end. I’m not afraid of challenges. We know how tough Oslo is and what a great team they have.”

“The preparation is complex,” Ben Shimon continued. “They have incredible tools and amazing players. Trying to handle just one player won’t work. The tactical preparation is complex, as they have world-class players. We’ve managed to deal with complexity before, and I hope we manage this time too. We need to prepare well, because it’s one of the toughest stadiums in European international football today.

“We had a tough match against Italy, and still we improved and made progress. I have no desire to lower or dampen expectations – the game against Italy was not a one-off. I believe in this national team, and we’ll continue to show our progress.”

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