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maltatoday WEDNESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2017 Sport 20 SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL Italy to face Sweden in World Cup playoff FOURTIMES world champions Italy were given a tough draw against Sweden on Tuesday in their two-legged playoff for a place at next year's World Cup. Italy, who last failed to qualify for the World Cup in 1958, will play the second leg at home on Nov. 13 in the most eye-catch- ing of the four ties. Switzerland, who finished second in their qualifying group despite winning nine of their 10 games, were drawn against Northern Ireland, who last qualified in 1986, with the first match in Belfast. Croatia, who were runners- up behind Iceland in their group, will face Greece with the first leg at home. The fourth tie pits Ireland, who will be playing in a playoff for a major tournament for the ninth time, against Denmark, who host the first match. Sweden have not beaten It- aly in their last five meetings, since a friendly in 1998, and the Italians won a dour game 1-0 at Euro 2016. But the prospect of having their fate decided in a two-leg playoff, after finishing run- ners-up behind Spain in their group, has got the Italian me- dia and public on edge. "We will prepare for the chal- lenge with faith and determi- nation," said Italy coach Gian Piero Ventura in a statement on the Italian federation's web- site. "Nobody has ever considered, or is considering, the hypoth- esis of not qualifying for the World Cup," added Ventura, who did not attend the draw. "The love of all Italians will accompany us. History teaches us that it is always this way in the do-or-die moments. We will all go to Russia together." Sweden coach Janne Anders- son was confident. "We had the toughest quali- fication group against Nether- lands and against France and we played some really good games. If we can play at the lev- el, then we can beat any team in the world, including Italy," he told the press. "We have a good mentality in the team, we have confidence." Northern Ireland coach Mi- chael O'Neill, whose team includes a number of English second tier players, said his side would make life as difficult as possible for Switzerland, who are bidding to qualify for their fourth successive World Cup. "We're here on merit. We were second in our group be- hind the Germans, of course we can believe we can win it," he said. "We can make the tie very difficult for Switzerland. They will be favourites to go through, we believe we are ca- pable of overcoming them." Ireland coach Martin O'Neill said: "I know Denmark and I know the manager Age Ha- reide, he and I used to play to- gether so it will be an interest- ing confrontation." Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic will be taking charge of only his second and third games af- ter he was appointed two days before their final group match against Ukraine. "I respect Greece but I am convinced it's down to how we perform," he said. "The tricky bit is that we are playing the return leg away." Fixtures in full (all times local) First leg: Croatia-Greece (Thursday 9 Novem- ber, 20.45) Northern Ireland-Switzerland (Thursday 9 November, 19.45) Sweden-Italy (Friday 10 November, 20.45) Denmark-Republic of Ireland (Satur- day 11 November, 20.45) Second leg: Greece-Croatia (Sunday 12 Novem- ber, 21.45) Switzerland-Northern Ireland (Sun- day 12 November, 18.00) Italy-Sweden (Monday 13 November 20.45) Republic of Ireland-Denmark (Tues- day 14 November, 19.45) Leicester dismiss manager Craig Shakespeare CRAIG Shakespeare has been sacked as Leicester manager and Sam Allardyce is an early front-runner to replace him. Shakespeare replaced Clau- dio Ranieri on a caretaker basis in February and after keeping the 2015-16 cham- pions in the Premier League he was handed a three-year contract ahead of the current campaign. However, Leicester have won just one league game so far this season and the club's Thai owners have decided to make a change. Shakespeare was given around £60million to spend on players in the summer transfer window, including £25million for striker Kel- echi Iheanacho, £17million for centre-half Harry Maguire and £15million on midfielder Vicente Iborra, but Leices- ter's only Premier League win came against newly-promoted Brighton in August. Their only other points have been picked up in draws against Huddersfield, Bourne- mouth and West Brom while Shakespeare oversaw wins against Sheffield United and Liverpool in the Carabao Cup. Monday night's 1-1 home draw with the Baggies saw Leicester's winless Premier League run reach six matches - the same as when Ranieri was sacked earlier this year. However, it was not thought that Shakespeare's job was under immediate threat fol- lowing a difficult start to the season which brought fixtures against Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liver- pool. Shakespeare said last week that he felt the forthcoming run of games before the next international break in No- vember provided an oppor- tunity to put points on the board and climb away from the bottom end of the Premier League table. Leicester travel to Swansea on Saturday before a Carabao Cup tie against Champion- ship club Leeds and matches against Everton and Stoke. Craig Shakespeare