{"id":26611,"date":"2026-03-18T22:13:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T22:13:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T22:13:57","slug":"tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/","title":{"rendered":"Tonali injured in Champions League before Italy World Cup play-offs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>BARCELONA, Spain (AP) &#8211; Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali was forced off injured in the Champions League against Barcelona on Wednesday, eight days before Italy&#8217;s World Cup qualifying play-off slot begins.<\/p>\n<p>Tonali appeared to injure his left thigh chasing down Fermin L\u00f3pez and played the ball into the corner.<\/p>\n<p>Early in the second half, the score was 4-2, when Barcelona forward Robert Lewandowski scored a header from a corner kick, sealing the Spanish champions&#8217; place in the quarter-finals. After drawing 1-1 with Newcastle last week, Barcelona quickly found themselves leading 6-2 at the Camp Nou.<\/p>\n<p>Tonali is a promising starter for Italy as the four-time champions aim to qualify for their first World Cup since 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Italy host Northern Ireland at Bergamo&#8217;s Atalanta Stadium on March 26, with the winner facing either Wales or Bosnia and Herzegovina five days later.<\/p>\n<p>The winner of the playoff bracket will be placed in the same World Cup group as co-hosts Canada, Switzerland and Qatar.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP Soccer: <span class=\"LinkEnhancement\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/italy-newcastle-tonali-champions-league-9185b9f65619db7255c4a5c250839772\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BARCELONA, Spain (AP) &#8211; Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali was forced off injured in the Champions League against Barcelona on Wednesday, eight days before Italy&#8217;s World Cup qualifying play-off slot begins. Tonali appeared to injure his left thigh chasing down Fermin L\u00f3pez and played the ball into the corner. Early in the second half, the score<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26611","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tonali injured in Champions League before Italy World Cup play-offs - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tonali injured in Champions League before Italy World Cup play-offs - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BARCELONA, Spain (AP) &#8211; Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali was forced off injured in the Champions League against Barcelona on Wednesday, eight days before Italy&#8217;s World Cup qualifying play-off slot begins. Tonali appeared to injure his left thigh chasing down Fermin L\u00f3pez and played the ball into the corner. Early in the second half, the score\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-18T22:13:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/\",\"name\":\"Tonali injured in Champions League before Italy World Cup play-offs - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/urlhttps3A2F2Fassets.apnews.com2F8c2F962F42a6f9f2f6d760e7e0de791f45672F66440d454232440581dfeae3ce8a2169.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-18T22:13:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/urlhttps3A2F2Fassets.apnews.com2F8c2F962F42a6f9f2f6d760e7e0de791f45672F66440d454232440581dfeae3ce8a2169.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/urlhttps3A2F2Fassets.apnews.com2F8c2F962F42a6f9f2f6d760e7e0de791f45672F66440d454232440581dfeae3ce8a2169.jpeg\",\"width\":980,\"height\":653},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/tonali-injured-in-champions-league-before-italy-world-cup-play-offs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tonali injured in Champions League before Italy World Cup play-offs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\",\"name\":\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"description\":\"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. 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