\n
<\/p>\n
Italy\u00a0failed to qualify for\u00a0the 2026 World Cup, for the third time in a row, following a dramatic penalty-shootout defeat to Bosnia-Herzegovina in Zenica on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The match finished 1-1 after extra time, with Bosnia winning 4-1 on penalties.<\/p>\n
The defeat means that Italy is\u00a0the first former champions in the tournament’s history to miss three consecutive editions.<\/p>\n
Italy, managed by Gennaro Gattuso, took the lead in the 15th minute through Moise Kean, who converted after a goalkeeping error by Bosnia’s Nikola Vasilj.<\/p>\n
The match turned decisively after 41 minutes when centre-back Alessandro Bastoni was shown a straight red card for a last-man foul on Amar Memic, leaving Italy to play the remainder of the contest with 10 men.<\/p>\n
Bosnia equalised in the 79th minute through Haris Tabakovic, who turned in a rebound after Gianluigi Donnarumma had parried a header from Edin Dzeko. The score remained 1-1 through extra time.<\/p>\n
In the penalty shootout, substitutes Pio Esposito and Bryan Cristante both failed to convert for Italy – Esposito firing over the bar, Cristante striking the post.<\/p>\n
Bosnia scored their first four penalties without error, with Esmir Bajraktarevi\u0107 converting the decisive kick to confirm their place at the tournament.<\/p>\n
Italy’s last appearance at a World Cup was in Brazil in 2014. Their previous play-off eliminations came at the hands of Sweden in 2018 and North Macedonia in 2022.<\/p>\n
The 2026 defeat to Bosnia, a nation ranked 66th by FIFA – 54 places below Italy – has compounded the sense of structural crisis within Italian football. None of Italy’s current squad has ever appeared in a World Cup finals.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the match, a tearful Gattuso said: “I want to personally apologise since we didn’t make it. These lads didn’t deserve this, for the effort, the love, the determination.” He declined to discuss his future.<\/p>\n
Italian football federation (FIGC) president Gabriele Gravina, who faced immediate calls for his resignation, confirmed he had asked Gattuso and delegation chief Gianluigi Buffon to remain in their posts.<\/p>\n
He announced that a Federal Council meeting would take place the following week to conduct formal evaluations, stating: “We realise we’re in a huge crisis.”<\/p>\n
Bosnia will compete at the 2026 World Cup in Group B, alongside co-hosts Canada, Switzerland and Qatar. Their opening fixture is scheduled for 12 June in Toronto.<\/p>\n
Italy’s next chance at returning to the World Cup will be in 2030, meaning the four-time world champions will go at least 16 years without playing in the global tournament.<\/p>\n
Italian newspapers captured the general mood of utter disappointment and disbelief in Italy on Tuesday night with headlines such as “Total disaster” (Corriere della Sera<\/em>), “A nightmare without end” (Il Messaggero<\/em>), and “Italy’s third World Cup flop” (Gazzetta dello Sport<\/em>).<\/p>\n “We still don\u2019t believe it – that we\u2019re out and that it happened in this way,” Italy defender Leonardo Spinazzola said – “It\u2019s upsetting for everyone. For us, for our families, and for all the kids who have never seen Italy at a World Cup.”<\/p>\n Photo credit: ErreRoberto \/ Shutterstock.com<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Four-time world champions Italy have not played in the World Cup since 2014. Italy\u00a0failed to qualify for\u00a0the 2026 World Cup, for the third time in a row, following a dramatic penalty-shootout defeat to Bosnia-Herzegovina in Zenica on Tuesday night. The match finished 1-1 after extra time, with Bosnia winning 4-1 on penalties. The defeat means<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1902,24176,2547,29693,7243,2127,3118],"class_list":["post-45567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eventi","tag-cup","tag-fail","tag-italy","tag-qualify","tag-row","tag-time","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/polinex.cluster021.hosting.ovh.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}