Italy lost on penalties to Bosnia and Herzegovina, ranked 66th in the world, and missed the World Cup finals for the third time in a row. In 2017, Sweden eliminated Italy in the playoff, and four years later North Macedonia did.
"The third apocalypse" is the headline in the major Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport.
But the third "revelation" did not come out of the blue.
The problems extend beyond the national team. No Italian club has won the Champions League since Inter in 2010. In this season's edition, all four Italian teams were eliminated before the quarter-finals.
This summer marks 20 years since Italy won its last World Cup gold, in 2006, and the 2021 European Championship victory provided no boost.
Gianluigi Buffon, the goalkeeping hero of the 2006 World Cup-winning team in Germany, believes drastic changes are needed.
"Today's result is the consequence of our attitude 20 years ago, when we thought our best players like Fabio Cannavaro and Francesco Totti would last forever. Even then we should have thought of new tactical and technical models," he says.
There is also debate that national football has been overshadowed by club football and that Serie A clubs are prioritizing their own operations. This has led to questions about the future of Italian Football Federation president Gabriele Gravina, who managed to retain his position after the 2022 World Cup.
