One of soccer\u2019s historic powers has reached a once-unfathomable low.<\/p>\n
Four-time champion Italy failed to qualify for a third straight World Cup after getting beat in a penalty shootout with 10 men at 66th-ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European playoffs on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Moise Kean scored early on for Italy but then Azzurri centre back Alessandro Bastoni was sent off with a direct red card before the break and Bosnia substitute Haris Tabakovic equalized in the 79th to send the game into extra time at 1-1.<\/p>\n
The defeat added more misery for Italy\u2019s once-proud national team after being eliminated by Sweden and North Macedonia, respectively, in the qualifying playoffs for the last two World Cups.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s too easy to say what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not working,\u201d Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said. \u201cThe fact is that Italy has failed to qualify for three World Cups. We\u2019re having a tough time achieving our goals, both with the national team and with our clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bosnia won the shootout 4-1 and qualified for the first time since 2014 \u2014 its only previous appearance.<\/p>\n
In the shootout, Pio Esposito and Bryan Cristante missed their spot kicks and U.S.-born Esmir Bajraktarevi\u0107 converted the decisive penalty for Bosnia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still don\u2019t believe it \u2014 that we\u2019re out and that it happened in this manner,\u201d Italy defender Leonardo Spinazzola said. \u201cIt\u2019s upsetting for everyone. For us, for our families, and for all the kids who have never seen Italy at a World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Tuesday\u2019s other European playoff finals, Sweden, Turkey and the Czech Republic each qualified. Sweden beat Poland 3-2; Turkey beat Kosovo 1-0; and the Czechs beat Denmark in a shootout.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s latest ouster means that the 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006 champions will go at least 16 years without even playing a match at soccer\u2019s biggest event.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s World Cup struggles go back all the way to 2010 and 2014, having failed to advance from its group on both occasions. Although the Azzurri did win the European Championship in 2021.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s last World Cup knockout match was when it won the title in 2006 by beating France in a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realize we\u2019re in a huge crisis,\u201d Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina said.<\/p>\n
The only other World Cup that Italy did not qualify for was in 1958.<\/p>\n
An entire generation \u2014 basically anyone under 15 \u2014 has no memory of the last time Italy played in the World Cup: An elimination loss to Uruguay in 2014 in Brazil remembered for Luis Suarez\u2019s bite of Giorgio Chiellini\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n
None of Italy\u2019s current players have participated in a World Cup finals.<\/p>\n
The defeat will raise questions about the status of Gattuso, who took over from the fired Luciano Spalletti in June with the squad already in crisis mode following a defeat at Norway in its opening qualifier.<\/p>\n
The Azzurri then went on a six-match winning streak before losing again to Norway in November to finish second in their group and end up in the playoffs again.<\/p>\n
Gattuso\u2019s Italy overcame a nervy scoreless first half to beat Northern Ireland 2-0 at home in last week\u2019s playoff semifinals. But the Azzurri struggled even more against Bosnia inside the intimate but imposing 14,000-seat Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica, which is surrounded by apartment towers overlooking the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to personally apologize since we didn\u2019t make it,\u201d Gattuso said. \u201cToday talking about my future is not important. Today it was important to get to the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
On paper, it was a massive mismatch between 12th-ranked Italy and Bosnia, which is ranked 54 places below the Azzurri by FIFA.<\/p>\n
Italy has a population of nearly 60 million. Bosnia\u2019s is about 3.5 million.<\/p>\n
The combined club salaries of Italy\u2019s players total nearly 1 billion euros ($1 million). Bosnia\u2019s total is a seventh of that.<\/p>\n
Bajraktarevi\u0107, who had the winning penalty, was born in Appleton, Wisconsin. He made his U.S. debut in a January 2024 friendly against Slovenia and then switched affiliation that August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of soccer\u2019s historic powers has reached a once-unfathomable low. Four-time champion Italy failed to qualify for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-574383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}