Dramatic duel in Bosnia
The trauma continues: Italy will miss the 2026 World Cup
Updated April 1, 2026 – 12:00 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
In 2018 and 2022, Italy failed dramatically in the World Cup playoffs. In 2026 history has repeated itself.
Italy missed qualifying for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. The four-time world champions failed in the playoffs against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday evening. The Eastern Europeans won 4-1 (1:1, 1:1, 0:1) after a penalty shootout in front of their home crowd. Moise Kean initially gave the Italians the lead (15th minute), Haris Tabaković equalized for Bosnia (79th). In the penalty shootout, Esmir Bajraktarevic finally scored the decisive penalty.
The game was previously marked by a sending off in the first half. The Italian Alessandro Bastoni was shown a red card for an emergency stop (41′). Italy missed out on taking part in the World Cup finals for the third time in a row. Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the other hand, is taking part for the second time after 2014.
Attacker Moise Kean scored the first goal of the game early on and also benefited from a serious mistake by St. Pauli goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj, whose unsuccessful pass led to the goal being conceded. Italy then limited themselves to defending and withdrew even more on the defensive after a red card for Bastoni. They were waiting for a counterattack – and again it was Kean who had the second goal on his feet. But the striker, who was running alone towards Vasilj, put the ball just over the goal. In regular time, Italy only shot at the Bosnian goal twice.
Bosnia pushed for an equalizer for a long time, but was finally rewarded by Tabaković (79th) from Borussia Mönchengladbach. Finally, Esmir Bajraktarevic destroyed all of Italy’s World Cup dreams in the penalty shootout.
Bosnia, led by Schalke striker Edin Džeko, will face Switzerland, Qatar and co-hosts Canada in Group B at the World Cup.
