Italians will once again be forced to watch a World Cup from the sidelines after another play-off disaster highlighted just how far one of the great footballing nations has fallen. Four-time world champions, the football-mad country finds itself at its lowest ebb and without a clear path to a brighter future after missing out again

In a stunning turn of events during the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers final, Italy suffered a heartbreaking exit from the World Cup qualification race after losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a tense penalty shootout (4-1), marking their third consecutive failure to reach the global tournament. Italy, a four-time World Cup champion, once again found

The international football landscape gives us a day of contrasts to kick off Wednesday. While the Spanish National Team continues fine-tuning pieces in a renewal process that has not been free of controversy, European football is experiencing a real earthquake with the confirmation of another historic absence from the next World Cup. Advertisement Spain: A

5 min readApr 1, 2026 08:33 AM IST Rome would burn, Milan would rage, Naples would weep. A proud footballing heritage laid in tatters at the Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica. For the third successive time, four-time world champions Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup. This time, they lost on penalty shootouts to

ATLANTA — Christian Pulisic said he feels the U.S. men’s national team is “closer than it may seem” after deflating back-to-back losses to Belgium and Portugal in this international window, but the attacking standout’s goal drought continues to be a major concern just over two months out from the World Cup. The AC Milan star

Barcelona have big plans for the summer transfer window , and these could include organising one or two big exits. Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres have all been linked with moves away from the Spotify Camp Nou, and another that has chances to depart is Jules Kounde. It has been a difficult

Spain were held to a goalless draw by Egypt on Tuesday, but the big talking point was the racist chants that were aimed at the visiting side from a section of supporters inside the RCDE Stadium. In the first half, chants of “whoever doesn’t jump is a Muslim” were heard inside the stadium, while the

Four-time world champions Italy failed to qualify for a third World Cup in a row after a devastating penalty shootout defeat by Bosnia-Herzegovina. No previous winner of the tournament has missed three consecutive instalments of the competition, after they also failed to reach Russia in 2018 and Qatar 2022. Pio Esposito – who fired over

Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said it is not the time to talk about his future despite the Azzurri failing to qualify for a third straight World Cup. Even if Gattuso hasn’t made up his mind whether to stay or not, the Italian soccer federation gave a clear sign it would like him to remain on

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has condemned anti-Muslim chants which were heard during the first half of Spain’s 0-0 draw with Egypt in Barcelona on Tuesday. At half-time, a message warning fans against xenophobic remarks and singing was displayed on the screen at the RCDE Stadium with the stadium announcer also reading out a similar

2 Germany’s March 2026 international break is now officially complete. In their penultimate bit of un-official action before the coming summer World Cup, Julian Nagelsmann’s German Nationalmannschaft won both of their friendlies. A 3-4 away win over Switzerland in Basel on Friday night was followed up by a 2-1 win over Ghana in Stuttgart on Wednesday.

Real Madrid’s impressive round-of-16 elimination of Manchester City was not without incident following the news that Thibaut Courtois suffered a right quadriceps injury during the first half of the return leg at the Etihad.  The injury will result in what is arguably Europe’s finest goalkeeper missing 6 weeks of action, including the highly anticipated Champions