ZENICA
\nItaly\u2019s agonising World Cup exile continues after they fell to a 4-1 penalty shootout defeat by Bosnia and Herzegovina in their playoff final on Tuesday following a 1-1 draw.
\nFour-time champions Italy had lost out at the playoff stage to miss the last two World Cups, and their last qualification in 2014 coincided with Bosnia\u2019s only previous \u200cappearance. Since lifting the trophy in 2006, Italy have won one game at the finals.
\nBosnia will play in Group B at the World Cup, joining co-hosts Canada, Qatar and Switzerland, while Italy will be left with some serious soul-searching to do after yet another failure.
\nBosnia had suffered plenty of playoff heartbreak themselves, missing out on the 2010 World Cup and the last four European Championships, but they came from behind on Tuesday and their keeper did not need to make a save when the shootout came around.
\n\u201cThese boys have a character and we knew they will make us proud,\u201d Bosnia manager Sergej Barbarez told reporters.
\n\u201cThese young players have this feeling, they don\u2019t think at all, they go to the pitch with brutal calmness.\u201d
\nItaly got off to the perfect start, with Moise Kean putting them ahead in the 15th minute, but had Alessandro Bastoni sent off three minutes before the break to raise the hopes of the home side.
\nBosnia levelled 11 minutes from time through Haris Tabakovic and both Pio Esposito and Bryan Cristante missed their penalties while the hosts made no mistake from the spot to repeat their semi-final shootout win over Wales.
\nKerim Alajbegovic came off the bench to net the winning penalty against Wales, and the 18-year-old again showed nerves of steel, converting one of Bosnia\u2019s spot kicks against Italy.
\n\u201cI am so proud that we fought fiercely till the end,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI knew that I\u2019d score the penalty regardless of who the goalkeeper is. Thanks everybody for being at the stadium, the atmosphere was brutal, we are going now to celebrate.\u201d
\nWorld Cup qualification was once a mere formality for Italy \u2014 their only previous absence before this barren spell came in 1958 \u2014 but they are now the only tournament winners to miss out on three successive finals.
\n\u2018The World Cup curse\u2019
\n\u201cThe World Cup curse,\u201d said the front page of Italy\u2019s main daily Corriere della Sera, calling for a rebuilding of a movement that produced some of the game\u2019s greatest players but has won just one match at the finals since lifting the trophy in 2006.
\nHeadlines on La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport, the country\u2019s two main sports newspapers, both said \u201cWe\u2019re all staying at home,\u201d in reference to yet another summer without a World Cup for the four-time champions.
\nFans in Rome were left stunned after Italy fell to a 4-1 penalty shootout defeat by Bosnia on Tuesday following a 1-1 draw, the third playoff defeat in a row after those against Sweden and North Macedonia.
\n\u201cEverything went badly from the start of the match. The team wasn\u2019t good, \u200cplayers out of form coming in and playing (anyway)\u2026 it makes no sense. Honestly, I\u2019m shocked,\u201d said Davide Caldaretta, who watched the game at a city pub.
\nThe \u2018Azzurri\u2019, as the team is known, last qualified for the World Cup finals in 2014, which coincided with Bosnia\u2019s only previous appearance at the tournament. The Balkan team will now play in Group B joining co-hosts Canada, Qatar and Switzerland.
\n\u201cEither something is wrong with the youth system or it doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d said fan Edoardo Settembre.
\nItaly went down to 10 men in the 42nd minute with Alessandro Bastoni punished for a late last-man tackle, a key turning point with Italy leading at the time.
\n\u201c(We feel) really upset and disappointed. Even when you\u2019re let down you always hold out hope. And this is the third time in a row,\u201d said Melanie Cardillo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ZENICA Italy\u2019s agonising World Cup exile continues after they fell to a 4-1 penalty shootout defeat by Bosnia and Herzegovina in their playoff final on Tuesday following a 1-1 draw. Four-time champions Italy had lost out at the playoff stage to miss the last two World Cups, and their last qualification in 2014 coincided with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":95743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95765,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95736\/revisions\/95765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}