Given one last chance to seize a place at the World Cup Italy pressed, they pushed, but they could not prevail, and as a result next summer’s tournament will take place without them. It is their first such failure in six decades, the Azzurri joining Holland as Europe’s most notable qualifying failures. Both of them were eliminated by Sweden, whose route to Russia has been far from straightforward.
Jakob Johansson’s goal in the first leg ultimately decided the tie in the Swedes’ favour. Here his side’s only ambition was to repel at any cost the waves of attacks rolling towards them, a job they did heroically if not entirely nervelessly.
Carlo Tavecchio, the president of the Italian FA, famously said in September that “not qualifying would be an apocalypse”. That day has arrived, with Gianluigi Buffon tearfully admitting his 175th cap would be his last and Daniele De Rossi – a substitute who when asked to warm up in the second half refused because “I wanted them to bring on attacking players” – also announcing his international retirement. Meanwhile Giampiero Ventura’s tenure as coach is surely over, even if he said after the game he was yet to resign.
His side had 75% of possession and 23 shots to their rivals’ four but there was no way past the visitors’ determined rearguard, the four Norsemen of the apocalypse. “We had no weapons left. We just had to sit there and hope we could hang on,” said the Sweden coach, Jan Andersson. “We couldn’t do it in any other way, they are so skilful.”