Italy Fails to Qualify for Third Consecutive World Cup After Penalty Shootout Loss to Bosnia-Herzegovina

ROME. Four-time World Cup winners Italy have failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third consecutive time after a stunning penalty shootout defeat to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Having missed the 2018 Russia and 2022 Qatar tournaments, Italy becomes the first former champion in World Cup history to miss three successive editions.

Despite being reduced to 10 men, coach Gennaro Gattuso's side managed to hold off Bosnia's relentless attacks to force the game into penalties. However, Pio Esposito and Bryan Cristante missed their spot-kicks.

Led by 40-year-old captain Edin Dzeko, Bosnia-Herzegovina has qualified for the World Cup for the second time in their history and will now face Canada, Qatar, and Switzerland in Group 'B' this summer.

For Italian football, it was a tragic night as the four-time champions faltered once again. While Italian Football Federation chief Gabriele Gravina stated he had urged the coach to remain in his post, an emotional Gattuso remarked that his future was 'not important.'

Gattuso said, 'It hurts, because this is what we, all of Italy, and our football campaign needed. It is a wound that will be hard to digest. I was ready to sacrifice years of my life and money to achieve our goal.'

Although Gravina insisted he would not resign, he acknowledged that Italian football is currently in a deep crisis.

Italy took the lead in the 15th minute through Moise Kean, who scored a brilliant goal from the edge of the penalty area following a move initiated by Nicolo Barella, capitalizing on a poor pass from Bosnian goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj.

However, five minutes before the end of the first half, Italian defender Alessandro Bastoni received a red card for fouling Bosnian winger Amar Memic, who was through on goal, giving the home side hope of a comeback.

Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma made several excellent saves in the second half. But in the 79th minute, after Donnarumma saved an Edin Dzeko header from an Amar Dedic cross, Haris Tabakovic converted the rebound to force the game into extra time.

In the subsequent penalty shootout, Bosnia's Benjamin Tahirovic, Tabakovic, Kerim Alajbegovic, and Esmir Bajraktarevic all scored to secure their place in the World Cup.

'Italian children will see another World Cup without Italy,' said winger Leonardo Spinazzola, shedding tears. 'I still cannot believe that we were eliminated like this after being reduced to 10 men. With patience, we took the game to penalties; we could have scored three or four goals. This is a huge disappointment for everyone.'

• Why did they fail to qualify this time?

Since winning their fourth World Cup in 2006, Italy has performed poorly in the international football showpiece. They were eliminated in the group stages of the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

They defeated England in the Euro 2020 final, but that appears to be an exception for a once-great football nation struggling on the international stage.

Gattuso, a former midfielder who was part of the 2006 winning squad, took over from Luciano Spalletti two games into this qualifying campaign.

Spalletti, 66, who could not prevent Italy from being eliminated in the Round of 16 at Euro 2024, was sacked in June following a 3-0 defeat to Norway, despite having been the coach during a win against Moldova three days earlier.

This made the path to direct qualification difficult for Gattuso and Italy. Despite questions regarding his qualifications for the role, he led the team to five consecutive wins against Estonia, Israel (twice), and Moldova.

However, they were already forced into the play-offs as runners-up before the 4-1 loss to Norway.

• Why is Italian football struggling?

The Italy team that defeated France in the 2006 final was arguably the best in the country's history. The foundation for that success was laid a decade earlier when Cesare Maldini's U-21 team won three consecutive European Championships between 1992 and 1996.

At that time, Serie A had a rule limiting clubs to no more than three non-European players on the pitch, which helped nurture domestic talent.

However, the 1995 Bosman ruling significantly changed the landscape of European football.

This led to an influx of foreign players into Serie A at the turn of the century, making it difficult for young Italian players to break into the first teams of their country's top clubs.

European football expert Julien Laurens told BBC Sport, 'Italy's academies are not producing enough players, or they are not producing players worthy of playing in their first teams. The way they spend money is different from the style Italian clubs used to employ.'

• Economic problems and stadium conditions

No major Italian club features in the top 10 of Deloitte's list of the world's highest-earning clubs. Premier League clubs are benefiting from ever-increasing TV deals, and other European leagues are also attracting significant investment.

Many Italian clubs have failed to modernize their stadiums, which is impacting commercial revenue. Some of the league's top clubs have reported massive losses in recent years, affecting future investment.

Former Italian forward Del Piero told CBS before the World Cup play-offs: 'The problem? Stadiums. We know that to improve, we must also work well off the pitch. The youth system also needs to be improved.'

Italy needs to correct many things to restore its former glory on the international stage.

According to Italian football writer Emmett Gates, who spoke to BBC Sport, the 'Azzurri' were already wounded by play-off defeats to Sweden and North Macedonia over the past decade. Now they can add this night to that list.

Teams that failed to qualify unexpectedly

There are other teams, but here we discuss some other sides that were expected to reach the finals but failed to qualify for the World Cup.

• Argentina (1970)

Argentina started that World Cup cycle as defending champions, and it always seems that such strong teams are always in the World Cup. However, they failed to reach the 1970 Mexico World Cup, despite having reached the quarter-finals four years earlier.

• England (1974)

Eight years after winning their first and only World Cup to date, England failed to qualify for the 1974 tournament. They needed a win against Poland in their final qualifier, but Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski produced a stellar performance to hold them to a draw, causing the Three Lions to miss out on the tournament in West Germany.

• Netherlands (1982)

Led by the legendary Johan Cruyff, the Dutch team was a major force in international football in the 1970s, reaching the World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978. However, they were drawn into a difficult group with Belgium and France for the 1982 tournament. They lost to both teams as well as the Republic of Ireland and could not advance.

• England (1994)

The last time the World Cup was held in the USA, England was not involved. They failed to qualify for the tournament held 32 years ago. Under then-manager Graham Taylor, England was in the same group as the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Turkey, and San Marino. They needed to avoid defeat against the Netherlands in Rotterdam to keep their qualification hopes alive, but Ronald Koeman did not receive a red card despite a professional foul on David Platt, and the Dutch won the game 2-0.

• Netherlands (2018)

While Italy is giving them stiff competition in this regard, the Netherlands can be considered masters of failing to qualify for World Cups they should be participating in. The Dutch team failed to reach the 1982, 1986, and 2002 World Cups. Although their 2018 World Cup qualifying squad was not like the great Dutch teams of the past, they certainly had enough talent to qualify.