As their celebrations began, Italy\u2019s nightmare continued. An entire generation of players will never know what it means to play at a World Cup. It was the then president of the Italian Football Federation, Carlo Tavecchio, who used the word \u201capocalypse\u201d to describe the failure to qualify in 2018 \u2013 Italy\u2019s first time missing out in 60 years \u2013 before taking responsibility and resigning. What do we call it now that it has become the norm?<\/p>\n
Bosnia and Herzegovina show their delight after winning the shootout. Photograph: Matteo Ciambelli\/Reuters<\/p>\n
\u201cDifficult to digest,\u201d were the words from Italy\u2019s manager, Gennaro Gattuso. He thanked his players for their effort, saying he thought they deserved better. \u201cThey surprised me even today with the heart they showed,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we are talking about the umpteenth time we aren\u2019t going to the World Cup. I personally apologise for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
From the outset Italy had looked nervous, giving up a chance as early as the third minute when Amar Memic was granted space to cross from the left. His low centre skirted the six-yard box before Riccardo Calafiori hacked it on to Manuel Locatelli and behind for a corner. Ermedin Demirovic fired in another shot that hopped before landing in the arms of Gianluigi Donnarumma.<\/p>\n
What Gattuso\u2019s side lacked in control, they made up for in ruthlessness. Mateo Retegui\u2019s pursuit of a Bosnian backpass caused the goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj to panic and deliver the ball straight to another Italian, Nicol\u00f2 Barella. He found Kean, surging through the middle, who finished first time into the top-right corner. His sixth consecutive game scoring for Italy.<\/p>\n
Quick GuideCzech Republic hold nerve to beat DenmarkShow![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775003111_363_4754.jpg\")
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Michal Sadilek\u2019s penalty sent the Czech Republic to the World Cup as they beat Denmark 3-1 in a shootout in Prague on Tuesday following a 2-2 draw after extra time.<\/p>\n
Tomas Chory and Tomas Soucek also scored for the Czechs in the shootout while Ladislav Krejci was denied by Danish goalkeeper Mads Hermansen. For the visitors, Christian Eriksen was the only shootout scorer while Rasmus H\u00f8jlund hit the crossbar, Anders Dreyer was denied by goalkeeper Matej Kovar and Mathias Jensen fired over the crossbar.<\/p>\n
On the chilly night in Prague, Pavel Sulc opened the score for the Czechs with a fine volley into the top corner three minutes into the game after the Danish defence had cleared a corner in his direction. <\/p>\n
Denmark levelled in the 72nd minute when Mikkel Damsgaard\u2019s free-kick found Joachim Andersen in the box ready with a glancing header.<\/p>\n
Czech captain Krejci gave the hosts the lead again in the 100th minute as he picked up a ball knocked down by Soucek in a goalmouth scramble following Vladimir Coufal\u2019s cross and his shot was deflected into the net by Danish defender Alexander Bah.<\/p>\n
But Denmark levelled again in the 111th minute when substitute Kasper H\u00f8gh headed home Eriksen\u2019s corner six minutes after coming on to the pitch. AFP<\/p>\n
Photograph: Gabriel Kuchta\/Getty Images Europe<\/p>\n
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Barbarez had joked before kick-off that if his team scored first they might have to park the bus, but \u201cif we concede one, we might have to put it elsewhere\u201d. They were using it now to chase their guests all over the pitch now, driving right at their opponents with a team full of players who almost all seemed comfortable to get on the ball and dribble.<\/p>\n
Italy looked like a team itching to hear the half-time whistle, even before Bastoni was sent off for a last-man foul on Memic. Gattuso responded to the dismissal by withdrawing a centre-forward and sending in a replacement defender, Federico Gatti. But the half ended in a flurry of Bosnian chances and the second started with Ermedin Demirovic narrowly failing to get his head to another cross by Memic.<\/p>\n
Kean might have sealed victory for Italy in the 60th minute. Reading Memic\u2019s intentions on a cross-field pass, he intercepted and raced beyond the home side\u2019s centre-backs. With Vasilj advancing, he took his shot on early and fired high of the target. How Italy rued that missed opportunity, as Tabakovic pounced on a rebound from an Edin Dzeko attempt and forced the ball home to take the game to extra time.<\/p>\n
Bosnia and Herzegovina fans show their enthusiasm to mark their team qualifying for the World Cup. Photograph: Fabio Ferrari\/AP<\/p>\n
A more cautious pace took hold. Perhaps the hosts were feeling the fatigue from their 120 minutes played against Wales. Italy appealed for their opponents to be reduced to 10 when Tarik Muharemovic brought down Marco Palestra, haring after a Sandro Tonali pass through the middle, but the defender got a yellow instead. Dzeko ended the game receiving treatment for a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n
If Bosnia and Herzegovina were no longer troubling Italy as they had before, the visitors still appeared the more relieved side to reach penalty kicks. But Francesco Esposito smashed their first attempt over the crossbar, and Bryan Cristante smacked his penalty against it.<\/p>\n
As the hosts celebrated, Italy stayed trapped in their own private hell, the only World Cup winners not to qualify for this year\u2019s edition. It hardly even feels like a surprise any more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The story will be of another Italian apocalypse, yet another infamous occasion for a nation that has won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-506152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}