Italy miss third World Cup on the trot

AP:

One of football’s historic powers has reached a once-unfathomable low.

Four-time champions Italy failed to qualify for a third straight World Cup after getting beaten in a penalty shoot-out with 10 men at 66th-ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European playoffs yesterday.

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 equalised in the 79th to send the game into extra time at 1-1.

The defeat added more misery for Italy’s once-proud national team after being eliminated by Sweden and North Macedonia, respectively, in the qualifying playoffs for the last two World Cups.

“It’s too easy to say what’s working and what’s not working,” Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said. “The fact is that Italy has failed to qualify for three World Cups. We’re having a tough time achieving our goals, both with the national team and with our clubs.”

Bosnia won the shootout 4-1 and qualified for the first time since 2014 — their only previous appearance.

In the shoot-out, Pio Esposito and Bryan Cristante missed their spot kicks, and US-born Esmir Bajraktarević converted the decisive penalty for Bosnia.

“We still don’t believe it — that we’re out and that it happened in this manner,” Italy defender Leonardo Spinazzola said. “It’s upsetting for everyone. For us, for our families, and for all the kids who have never seen Italy at a World Cup.”

In yesterday’s 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 shoot-out.

Italy’s latest ouster means that the 1934, 1938, 1982, and 2006 champions will go at least 16 years without even playing a match at football’s biggest event.

Italy’s World Cup struggles go back all the way to 2010 and 2014, having failed to advance from their group on both occasions. Although the Azzurri did win the European Championship in 2021.

Italy’s last World Cup knockout match was when they won the title in 2006 by beating France in a penalty shoot-out.

“We realise we’re in a huge crisis,” Italian footall federation president Gabriele Gravina said.

The only other World Cup that Italy did not qualify for was in 1958.

An entire generation — basically anyone under 15 — 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’s bite of Giorgio Chiellini’s shoulder.

None of Italy’s current players has participated in a World Cup finals.

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 their opening qualifier.

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.

Gattuso’s Italy overcame a nervy scoreless first half to beat Northern Ireland 2-0 at home in last week’s playoff semi-finals. 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.

“I want to personally apologise since we didn’t make it,” Gattuso said. “Today, talking about my future is not important. Today, it was important to get to the World Cup.”

On paper, it was a massive mismatch between 12th-ranked Italy and Bosnia, who are ranked 54 places below the Azzurri by FIFA.

Italy has a population of nearly 60 million. Bosnia’s is about 3.5 million.

The combined club salaries of Italy’s players total nearly 1 billion euros. Bosnia’s total is a seventh of that.

Bajraktarević, who had the winning penalty, was born in Appleton, Wisconsin. He made his US debut in a January 2024 friendly against Slovenia and then switched affiliation that August.