Bastoni was sent off and Retegui paid: Gattuso replaced him in the first half

Italy He was having a good time at the Bilino Polje Stadium. I won 1-0 against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the playoff heading to the 2026 World Cupthere was hit fast with Moise Kean and seemed to have the game under control. But everything changed 41 minutes into the first half, when Alessandro Bastoni saw the red card and forced Gennaro Gattuso to put his hand in immediately.

The defender’s expulsion came after an action in which he arrived late to a cross against Amar Memic. The play left Italy with ten players in a sensitive stretch of the match, still before half-time and with a minimal advantage on the scoreboard. Faced with this new scenario, the coach did not hesitate and rebuilt the team’s structure with a modification that had a full impact on the attack.

He chosen to leave was Mateo Retegui. Gattuso decided to sacrifice the forward to allow Federico Gatti to enter and recompose the last line after Bastoni’s red. The change clearly reflected the immediate cost of the expulsion: Italy lost one of its offensive men to maintain the numerically inferior defensive order.