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<\/p>\nBut underdog Bosnia-Herzegovina scored an equalizer in the 79th minute and then won the game 4-1 in a penalty shootout, shattering Italy\u2019s dream of qualifying for the World Cup to face Canada in the country\u2019s opening match.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Valela said it was \u201cvery painful\u201d to watch his favourite team lose. <\/p>\n
\u201cSad for Italy, sad for Toronto, Canada, because there\u2019s a very large Italian population here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would have been very exciting to have watched Canada and Italy play.\u201d<\/p>\n
As disappointment swept across Toronto\u2019s Little Italy, celebration erupted in the stadium where the match was played in Zenica, Bosnia.<\/p>\n
Among the jubilant Bosnian fans in the stands was Mirza Durak, a Mississauga, Ont., resident who described the atmosphere as \u201creally wild.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable. My heart is full, the country is going crazy,\u201d he said in a phone interview from Zenica. \u201cIt was amazing to play against Italy, who has huge history in soccer \u2026 this is (an) unbelievable feeling for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durak said he and two of his friends were on a nine-day trip from Canada to watch their home country\u2019s team take on Wales and Italy in the playoffs. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe brought them luck, I guess,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He said the stadium went silent when Italy scored the first goal. \u201cBut when we scored, it was wild,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was amazing, and we believed that we could win, and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durak said he was making his way to downtown Sarajevo, Bosnia\u2019s capital city, where thousands of fans are expected to celebrate the win. <\/p>\n
Bosnia\u2019s only other World Cup appearance was in 2014, where it was eliminated in the group stage. The country has now joined Canada, Qatar and Switzerland in Group B at this year\u2019s tournament, and will face Canada in Toronto on June 12. <\/p>\n
Durak said he has made arrangements to get tickets for that game. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would be glad if either of them win, but I\u2019m pretty sure my heart will be with Bosnia,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Valela said he had four World Cup tickets, including for Canada\u2019s opening game against Bosnia. With Italy now out of the picture, he will cheer for Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great time to be in Toronto. How lucky can we be to be hosting part of the World Cup?\u201d he said. \u201cWho knows if it will come back, and for me it\u2019s just a thrill, and I want to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
His son Chris Valela said while he was heartbroken to watch Italy lose the game, he too is looking forward to cheering for Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a fan of the game, I\u2019m a fan of sport, and I\u2019m fortunate enough that Canada is going to be one of those games and I\u2019ll get to see that. That\u2019s going to (be) amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut (I\u2019m) just sad that we lost the opportunity to watch two countries I care about in the city I grew up in.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n
Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But underdog Bosnia-Herzegovina scored an equalizer in the 79th minute and then won the game 4-1 in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82,3302],"class_list":{"0":"post-574645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-central-vancouver-island","12":"tag-nanaimo","13":"tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","14":"tag-nanaimo-news","15":"tag-nanaimo-news-now","16":"tag-nanaimonewsnow","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-oceanside","19":"tag-parksville","20":"tag-qualicum","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-toronto"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574645","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=574645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}