Four-time world champions Italy failed to qualify for a third World Cup in a row after a devastating penalty shootout defeat by Bosnia-Herzegovina.
No previous winner of the tournament has missed three consecutive instalments of the competition, after they also failed to reach Russia in 2018 and Qatar 2022.
Pio Esposito – who fired over – and Bryan Cristante – who hit the underside of the crossbar – missed spot-kicks in the shootout after Gennaro Gattuso’s 10 men had held on amid a barrage of Bosnian shots to take the game to penalties.
Bosnia-Herzegovina – and 40-year-old captain Edin Dzeko – have now qualified for just the second time in their history and will face Canada, Qatar and Switzerland in Group B this summer.
But this was a woeful night for Italian football as the four-time winners failed again.
A tearful manager Gennaro Gattuso insisted his future “was not important” after the head of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) Gabriele Gravina told reporters he had asked Gattuso to stay.
Gattuso said: “It hurts, because we needed it for us, for all of Italy and for our movement. A blow that’s difficult to digest.
“I would have given up years of my life, money, for us to achieve our goal.”
Gravina insisted he would not step down but admitted Italian football had now reached a “profound crisis”.
Italy led when Moise Kean provided a fine finish from the edge of the area after Nicolo Barella pounced when Bosnia goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj misplaced a pass in the 15th minute.
But the home side’s hopes of a comeback were enhanced when Italy defender Alessandro Bastoni was sent off for hacking down Amar Memic with the Bosnia winger clean through on goal five minutes before the break.
Italy keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was forced into a string of second-half saves but when he pushed out Edin Dzeko’s header from Amar Dedic’s 79th-minute cross, Haris Tabakovic managed to turn home the rebound to force extra time.
The hosts were then perfect from the spot with Benjamin Tahirovic, Tabakovic, Kerim Alajbegovic and Esmir Bajraktarevic scoring to secure their place in the summer tournament.
“Italian children will see another World Cup without Italy,” said tearful winger Leonardo Spinazzola.
“I still can’t believe that we went out like this, after playing with 10 men. With grit, we took it to penalties, we could have scored three or four goals and it’s really a great disappointment for everyone.”
Why have they not qualified this time?
Since winning the World Cup for the fourth time in 2006, Italy have failed miserably in international football’s main event as they did not get past the group stages in 2010 and 2014.
They beat England in the Euro 2020 final but that now appears to be an outlier for a once-great football nation struggling on the international stage.
Former midfielder Gattuso – who started for Italy the last time they won the World Cup in 2006 – replaced Luciano Spalletti as manager two games into this qualifying campaign.
Spalletti – who led Italy to a disappointing last-16 exit at Euro 2024 – was dismissed after a 3-0 defeat by Norway in June but the 66-year-old stayed in charge for a win against Moldova three days earlier.
That still left Gattuso and Italy an uphill task to qualify automatically. Despite doubts over his suitability for the role, he won five games on the bounce, twice against Estonia and Israel with another win over Moldova.
However, even before a 4-1 defeat by Norway, they were destined for second and the play-offs.
Why is Italian football struggling?
When Italy beat France in the 2006 final, they did so with what was arguably the greatest team in the country’s history.
The foundations of that success were laid a decade earlier when Cesare Maldini’s under-21 side won three consecutive European Championships between 1992 and 1996.
The depth of talent then was aided by a ruling in Serie A that prohibited clubs from having more than three non-European players on the pitch at one time.
But that all changed in 1995 when the Bosman ruling – a case that fought to improve the rights of European players – significantly altered the landscape of football on the continent.
That all led to an influx of overseas players heading to Serie A towards the end of the century, which made it harder for young Italian players to get first-team football with top clubs in their homeland.
European football expert Julien Laurens told BBC Sport: “The academies in Italy are not producing enough players, or players who are fit to play in their first team. The way they spend their money is not what we are used to from Italian clubs.”
Financial problems and stadium issues
None of Italy’s big clubs feature in the top 10 in Deloitte’s list of the world’s top revenue-generating clubs.
Premier League clubs benefit from ever-increasing TV deals and other European leagues attract heavy investment.
Many Italian sides have also failed to modernise their stadiums, which impacts commercial revenue.
Some of the league’s top clubs have reported substantial losses in recent years, which hurts their investment in the future.
Former Italy forward Del Piero told CBS before the World Cup play-offs: “Problems? Stadiums. We know you have to perform better outside of the pitch [to improve] that. Youth systems as well.”
There feels there is a lot to fix for Italy to return to where it once was on the international stage.
Italian football writer Emmet Gates told BBC Sport that The Azzurri were “scarred” from the play-off defeats by Sweden and North Macedonia over the past decade. They can now add this night to that.
Italy join the list of other surprise qualifying failures
There are others, but here are some of the other World Cup qualifying failures by teams largely expected to have reached the finals.
Argentina 1970
Argentina start this World Cup as the defending champions and it always feels like the heavyweights are involved.
However, back in 1970 they did fail to reach the finals in Mexico, having been quarter-finalists four years earlier.
England 1974
England failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, which came just eight years after they won it for the first and so far only time.
They needed a win against Poland in their final qualifying game but found goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski in inspired form as the Three Lions were held to a draw that denied them a place at the tournament in West Germany.
Netherlands 1982
The Dutch side of the 1970s – led by the legendary Johan Cruyff – were a powerful force in international football and reached the World Cup final in 1974 and 1978.
But for the 1982 tournament they were handed a tough qualifying group alongside Belgium and France. They lost to both along with Republic of Ireland as they failed to progress.
England 1994
The last time a World Cup took place in the USA, England were not in it, having failed to qualify for the tournament there 32 years ago.
Under then-manager Graham Taylor, England were in the same group as Holland, Norway, Poland, Turkey and San Marino.
They needed to avoid defeat against Holland in Rotterdam to boost their chances of getting through, but Ronald Koeman was not sent off for his professional foul on David Platt and the Dutch went on to win the game 2-0.
Netherlands 2018
The Netherlands are arguably the masters of failing to reach World Cups they should really be participating in, even if Italy are now pushing them close.
The Dutch failed to reach the tournament in 1982, 1986 and 2002 and while their team for qualifying for the 2018 World Cup was not as great as past Oranje sides, they nevertheless still should have had enough to qualify.
Source: BBC