Italy v North Macedonia live updates - latest World Cup play-off action as Italy look to book place at Qatar

Italy are stretching the North Macedonia defence and looking to play their way into the box before unleashing an effort. North Macedonia must hold them off and see out this intial period of Italian dominance.

On the rare occasion Italy have the ball in their own half, North Macedonia are pressing well and looking to win the ball high up the pitch. The inexperienced centre back pairing of Mancini and Bastoni will have to be aware of that.

Italy break forward with Insigne leading a wave of blue shirts into the North Macedonia half, but lose posession before they could threat Dimitrievski's goal.

Emerson snatches at a shot on the edge of the box but it blazes over the bar.

Italy look to play their way down both flanks in the opening couple of minutes, but North Macedonia sit tight and regain possesion on both occasions.

We're underway in Italy!

The national anthems have echoed around the Sicilian setting, and we're almost ready for kick off!

Roberto Mancini opened up ahead of Italy's game against North Macedonia:

“We need to stay calm & play our game. North Macedonia beat Germany 2-1, they have important technical qualities. We need to have patience because they won’t give us much space”

We're almost set at Stadio Renzo Barbera in Palermo, only 15 minutes to go until kick off!

Well, we already know only one of Italy, Portugal, Turkey or North Macedonia can advance from Path C, but there are other big names looking to secure qualification this week.

There's a lot of British interest in Path A, with Wales coming up against Austria and Scotland scheduled to take on Ukraine (postponed, date TBC).

Poland advanced to the final after Russia were eliminated, and will play either Sweden or Czech Republic in the Path B final.

Let's not forget, the current European champions missed out on a spot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia - for the first time in 60 years - losing 1-0 on aggregate to Sweden at the same stage.

If they fail to win tonight, or lose to either Portugal or Turkey in the final, that means they could potentially go from 2014 - 2026 without featuring at a World Cup.

Tonight's fixture kicks off the World Cup semi final play-offs, and Italy must advance past North Macedonia if they are to have any chance of qualifying for Qatar 2022.

If they do manage to get the win, they will face either Portugal or Turkey in the path C 'final' to secure one of the last three remaining spots for European countries.

ITALY: Donnarumma, Florenzi, Mancini, Bastoni, Emerson, Barella, Jorginho, Verratti, Berardi, Immobile (C), Insigne

NORTH MACEDONIA: Dimitrievski, Ristovski (C), Velkovski, Musliu, Alioski, Churlinov, Ademi, Bardhi, Nikolov, Ristovski, Trajkovski

Welcome to Eurosport's LIVE digital coverage of Italy v North Macedonia as the World Cup play-offs get underway!

Team news to follow...