ITALY crashed out of the World Cup before the tournament has even began for the THIRD time in a row and Sweden progressed on a dramatic final night of European qualifying.
All of Europe‘s 16 countries competing in the USA, Canada, and Mexico have now been confirmed after Tuesday’s last set of play-offs.
On a night of fine margins, all four Uefa confederation play-offs were decided by either one goal or went to penalties.
Italy had another World Cup shocker against Bosnia and Herzegovina, only scoring one of their pens after the game ended 1-1 after extra time.
Pio Esposito smashed his kick into the stands before Bryan Cristante hit the bar to condemn Gennaro Gattuso to embarrassment.
Only minutes earlier, Czech Republic beat Denmark on penalties themselves following a 2-2 draw which included goals for both sides in the extra half-an-hour.
Denmark missed three of their four spot-kicks including Rasmus Hojlund hitting the bar and Mathias Jensen firing over.
All of that came after Viktor Gyokeres‘ 87th minute winner for Sweden against Poland to seal a 3-2 victory.
Turkey also edged past Kosovo 1-0 in another tight and nervy fixture.
For Italy, they couldn’t make it third time lucky at qualifying as they conceded late against Bosnia and then ended up red faced once more.
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This is the THIRD successive World Cup they have missed out on despite being the competition’s joint-second best side in history with four wins.
Since lifting it last in 2006 they have won just one game the the tournament finals – and that was against England in 2014.
It’s the second time in a week that the Bosnians have hit back just as their own hopes appeared to be fading.
On-loan Hoffenheim forward Haris Tabakovic netted in the 80th minute to send the game to extra time after Moise Kean‘s first half strike looked to have been enough.
Former Everton striker Kean scored against Northern Ireland in the 2-0 play-off ‘semi’ win on Friday and did so here too, firing in a wonderful early finish.
But Gattuso’s side could not hold on and were forced to play over 80 minutes a man down in the end after star defender Alessandro Bastoni was sent off before the break.
Bosnia went on to do it again on pens just days after beating Wales to book a place in Group B with co-hosts Canada, Qatar, and Switzerland.
Newcastle hero Sandro Tonali was the only player to score for Italy as Esposito caved under the pressure and Cristante couldn’t keep his own effort down.
It extends a 12-year hoodoo for Italy after failing to get to Russia 2018 or Qatar 2022.
Meanwhile, Graham Potter‘s dream start as Sweden boss continued thanks to the most entertaining victory of the night.
His team beat Poland 3-2 in a ding-dong game which proved an outlier in a set of nervy fixtures.
Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres bagged an 88th minute winner to spark wild scenes at the Strawberry Arena in Stockholm.
They scored with both shots on target in the first half against Poland but were pegged back to 2-2 before the hour mark.
Managed by former Prem boss Potter, Gyokeres and Anthony Elanga both played with Victor Lindelof in defence as Robert Lewandowski was shut out.
This was surely the Barcelona’s veteran’s last chance to play at another major tournament as Sweden found a dramatic fifth goal of the game to seal their passage to the finals.
Potter will take Sweden into Group F and faces the Netherlands, Japan, and Tunisia.
Elsewhere, Turkey had the simplest of tasks on paper against minnows Kosovo but were made to fight for it.
Kerem Akturkoglu’s opener took more than an hour to come but an Arda Guler and Kenan Yildiz inspired team booked their place regardless, going through as 1-0 winners.
They will be with the US, Paraguay, and Australia in Group D.
Whilst, if Italy and Turkey were favourites heading into the night then Denmark would also have been deemed most likely to progress past Czech Republic.
Boasting Prem-known players Joachim Andersen, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Rasmus Hojlund, and Mikel Damsgaard, they were also forced to extra time.
It was Damsgaard assisting Andersen that got the Danes level after a third minute strike from Pavel Sulc had set Czech Republic on their way.
Wolves’ Ladislav Krejci thought he had gotten the deciding goal in extra time for the Czechs (with Patrick Schick, Vladimir Coufal, and Tomas Soucek) only for Kasper Hogh to make it 2-2 in the 111th minute.
Hojlund missed the first pen of the shootout, hitting the bar, and things did not get any better from there.
Jensen blasted over and that was that when Michal Sadílek made no such mistake.
It means that 10 of the 12 groups for the expanded 48-team World Cup have now been completed before Congo and Jamaica play in the intercontinental play-offs and Iraq face Bolivia.
