Why Italy’s latest World Cup disaster is now the norm

So it will remain the case that the last kick of a ball in an Azzurri shirt in a World Cup in the United States will remain the penalty Roberto Baggio ballooned over the bar in Pasadena in 1994. Missed spot kicks can be a theme of Italian mishaps on the global stage, but now there is a different kind of punishment. When Baggio blazed the ball into the stratosphere, a final was lost.

Some 32 years on, when Pio Esposito cleared the bar and Bryan Cristante hit it, it meant Italy would not be going to the 2026 World Cup. Campione del Mondo two decades ago, the end of the world now ? It could feel that way, Italy ’s fortunes summed up by the fact Gennaro Gattuso , the pitbull in a World Cup-winning midfield, is the manager whose team were beaten on penalties by Bosnia and Herzegovina in Tuesday’s play-off.

Italy were eliminated by the team ranked 65th in the world, on a day when their supposed inferiors had 31 shots. There could be comparisons with the 2022 defeat to North Macedonia, another part of the old Yugoslavia; but then, at least, it was Italy who had 30 attempts at goal. Ridiculously, Gattuso remains part of the last Italy team to win a knockout tie at the World Cup: the 2006 final.

The last team to play in a World Cup at all were knocked out by Uruguay in their last group-stage game in 2014 and also lost to Costa Rica. That side contained Gattuso’s old sidekick Andrea Pirlo, the regista will be in his fifties by the time Italy play in a World Cup; if, that is, they qualify for 2030. The four-time winners are missing a third successive tournament.