Four-time Champions, Italy failed to qualify Third Consecutive World Cup

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.