Italy was playing world cup qualifiers terribly, they were unable to win most games, achieving only boring ties against considered weak teams such as Northern Ireland and Bulgaria. And even though Switzerland isn't a weak team, Italy should have been superior to them, but they were unable to do it as well, staying in second position in group C. Considering it, Portugal seems to have some advantage over them.
However, at same time, Italy has played Eurocopa 2021 brightly and that is a very strong factor at their favour. I could even believe Italy has totally focused their effort and energy in Eurocopa until now and since it's over, they can fully concentrate their skills in world cup from this phase on.
You are right in this concern, but sadly Italy is facing some serious trouble with too many injuries which are occurring these matches, and they have to face few unwanted draws against weak teams, so now they are in qualifiers for next world cup after losing their spot in last world cup, but surely we all know in few things no one can do any magic, so this happens in Italy case they are facing some terrible injuries with too many players but now good luck they have some good time hopefully during this period they will have some better options or alternative, so they will be able to play against strong opponent like Portugal and will qualify for next world cup.
@uneng in my personal opinion both the teams are starting fresh, because now it doesn’t matter what happened in the past few games as all that will matter is how they perform in their upcoming fixtures knowing that if they drop their guard down they’ll be eliminated. Furthermore as a Ronaldo fan I’m biased to say I want Portugal to qualify for the World Cup, but as a football fan I would be happy to see Italy qualify too if Portugal fails to qualify.