Step aside, USA. Some soccer royalty will be watching the 2018 FIFA World Cup with you from afar.
Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup after playing Sweden to a goal-less draw on Monday and losing their two-game World Cup qualifying playoff series 1-0 on aggregate. The four-time world champions will miss the World Cup for the first time since 1958, with this generation of players entering their country’s soccer hall of shame.
Sweden won the first leg 1-0 on Friday, and the goal-less draw in the second leg clinched the nation’s first World Cup ticket since 2006.
Italy joins, USA, Netherlands, Chile and Ivory Coast among prominent countries who failed to reach next summer’s tournament in Russia.
