The world football powerhouse has once again suffered an incredible blow. Four-time World Cup champions Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row. It was an embarrassing moment for the team. Italy were reduced to 10 men and lost a penalty shootout to 66th-ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina in a European play-off qualifier on Tuesday.

The match had ended in a 1-1 draw after regulation and extra time. Moise Kean scored for the Azzurri early. Italy centre-back Alessandro Bostino was sent off immediately after being sent off. Bosnian substitute Haris Tabakovic equalised in the 79th minute. Italy, which prides itself on its football achievements, had lost to Sweden and North Macedonia in the previous two play-offs.

Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said after the match, "It will be easy to tell everyone why we failed and the reasons behind it." But the reality is that we have failed to qualify for the World Cup for the third time in a row. We have failed to achieve our goal now. It is a very difficult situation for the Italian national team and the club.'

Bosnia won the tiebreaker 4-1. The team qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 2014. It was Bosnia's only World Cup experience. Pio Esposito and Brian Cristante missed penalties. In this case, American-born Izmir Bajraktarević scored the decisive goal for Bosnia from the penalty spot. While the Bosnian team was happy, the Italian players looked shocked.

Italy defender Leonardo Spinzalo said, 'We still can't believe it. The way we were eliminated from the World Cup and the way all this happened, we are all shocked. This is not just our pain, it is the pain of all our families. Some of our children have not even seen Italy play in the World Cup. Sweden, Turkey and the Czech Republic have qualified for the World Cup through the European Tuesday play-offs.

Italy won the World Cup in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006. Now a team as big as Italy will spend at least 16 years without playing in the tournament. Although Italy qualified for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, they failed to reach the knockout stage on both occasions. In such a situation, the struggle of Italian football had already begun, it did not appear suddenly.

Meanwhile, Italy won the European Championship title in 2021. The last time Italy played in the knockout stage of the World Cup was in 2006, when they defeated France in a tiebreaker in the final to win the title. Gabriele Gravina, president of the Italian Football Federation, said, “I think we are in a really big problem right now.”

The only previous time Italy did not qualify for the World Cup was in 1958. In this way, a generation of Italians under the age of 15 have not seen their country play in the World Cup. None of the players in the Italian national team have had World Cup experience. The current defeat also leaves coach Gattuso's future uncertain.

He took charge of the team last June, when coach Luciano Spalletti was fired. The Italian team has been in crisis since losing the match against Norway. After losing the second qualifying match against Norway, Italy was in second place in the group. Gattuso finally said, "We did not qualify for the World Cup, so I want to apologize to everyone personally. It is not right to talk about the future now. We should have qualified for the World Cup."

World Cup finalizes 48 teams

With the selection of DR Congo and Iraq, the long and complicated journey of selecting the teams to play the 2026 World Cup came to a complete end on Wednesday. All 48 teams that will participate in the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico have been finalized. Which countries are the lucky ones to qualify for the biggest tournament in world football?