Drama in Italy: will not play the World Cup for the third consecutive time

BarcelonaDrama in Italy. The Italian team has fallen in penalties against Bosnia and for the third consecutive year will not be in the final phase of a World Cup. If eight years ago they were eliminated by Sweden and four years ago they fell against North Macedonia, today they have lost against the Bosnians in a match where Moise Kean scored 0-1, but a red card to Bastoni before halftime conditioned everything. The Bosnians equalized thanks to Tabakovic 10 minutes from the end played in Zenica and the match was decided in the penalty shootout, where Pio Exposito and Cristante missed. Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has not missed any, has thus qualified for its second final phase a few days after eliminating the Welsh also on penalties.

The Italians, a team with four World Cups won, who had also won the 2012 European Championship, have now gone three World Cups without qualifying, something that had never happened before. The last World Cup they had played was in Brazil in 2014, when they were eliminated in the group stage. A 2014 World Cup that was also the first for Bosnia, who will now return to a final phase for the second time in a match where their great star, Edin Dzeko, has ended up injured. The current Schalke 04 player is one of the survivors of that team.

After finishing behind Norway in the group stage, Gattuso's team had defeated Northern Ireland in the semi-finals but today have fallen against the Bosnians in a match where the sending off of Alessandro Bastoni, a player of interest to Barça, has been key. Until then, Italy was controlling the match. But losing a player has given the locals wings. Bastoni had already received a lot of criticism this season for some unsportsmanlike conduct, such as when he feigned an assault during an Inter-Juve match, and has ended up at the center of criticism from an Italian team that has claimed a possible handball by Dzeko in the play that led to the Bosnians' equalizer, who had been dictating the pace of the game.

Gattuso had taken charge of the team after the dismissal of Luciano Spalletti a year ago, and with him, the team had managed to improve results, but without achieving their goal of being in the World Cup. "We had three chances to score, it's a shame, this is football. I am proud of my boys, it hurts me because this World Cup was important for us, for our families, for all of Italy... A hard blow for everyone, I apologize," said the coach.

The Italians, champions for the last time in 2006, did not advance from the group stage in 2010 and 2014. And then, the drama with three defeats in the play-offs against the Swedes, Macedonians, and now Bosnians. Previously, Italy had played absolutely all World Cups except on two occasions, in 1930 when they withdrew and in 1958 when they were eliminated by Northern Ireland.

Lewandowski, without a World Cup

In the other duels, Lewandowski's Poland has fallen 3-2 against the Swedes. Turkey has broken Kosovo's heart and returns to a World Cup after 24 years and finally, the Danes have been eliminated by the Czechs also on penalties. The match ended 2-2 and in penalties, the Czech Republic did not fail.

With these matches, all the European teams qualified for the World Cup are now known. The Czech Republic completes group A with Mexico, South Africa and South Korea, while Turkey will go to the group formed by Paraguay, the United States and Australia, as decided by the draw last December. Bosnia is placed in group B, in which it will compete with Canada, Qatar and Switzerland; and Sweden will play in the first phase of the World Cup against the Netherlands, Japan and Tunisia.

The Democratic Republic of Congo returns to a World Cup

The complete configuration of the groups was not decided until the last two repechages. In the first, the Democratic Republic of Congo has overcome Jamaica in extra time (1-0), entering the group with Portugal, Uzbekistan and Colombia in group K. It will be the second World Cup for the Democratic Republic of Congo, as in 1974 it played when it was still called Zaire. The last duel was between Iraq and Bolivia. The winner will go to the group of France, Senegal and Norway.