The extraordinary Lamine Yamal stat after Italy fail to qualify for THREE tournaments in a row

Italy were within touching distance of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup but a penalty shootout loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina saw them miss out yet again.

After finishing second in their group behind Norway, Italy knew they had to do things the hard way to make it to the 2026 World Cup.

Defeating Northern Ireland last week was just half of the challenge, and the Azzurri fell at the final hurdle on Tuesday night to continue a miserable run of failing to qualify for the World Cup.

Italy miss out on World Cup 2026 place, meaning they've not played a knockout game since the 2006 final

A 1-1 draw on the night took the game to penalties, where Bosnia and Herzegovina trounced the Italians 4-1. That's a big deal for the Bosnians, who qualify for only their second-ever World Cup.

But, while other nations are celebrating and preparing for the tournament in the USA this summer, Italy will be wondering where it's all gone wrong over the last 12 years.

Incredibly, Italy's last World Cup knockout game was in 2006, the year they actually won the competition amid the infamous Zinedine Zidane headbutt flashpoint.

Since then, Italy crashed out in the group stage in 2010 and 2014, then failed to qualify in 2018 and 2022.

To put that into perspective, the last time Italy played a knockout game, Barcelona and Spain wonderkid Lamine Yamal wasn't even born. The teenager arrived into the world a whole year later, in fact, in July 2007.

Perhaps even more staggering, Italy's participation in the World Cup knockout stages also pre-dates the creation of the iPhone.

If we cast our minds back to Italy's last involvement in a World Cup, in 2014, most would remember that simply for the incident involving Giorgio Chiellini and Luis Suarez.

Suarez, who played in four World Cups for Uruguay, was never far away from controversy. But, his most infamous moment came when he seemingly bit Chiellini on the shoulder in that group stage game.

Ironically, Italy's one victory since that World Cup final triumph in 2006 came at the expense of none other than England. The Azzurri would repeat that success in 2023, when they won the European Championships at Wembley by beating the Three Lions on penalties.

Italy will now have to wait for the 2030 World Cup to end their miserable run, which will have lasted 16 years by that point.