One of soccer's historic powers has reached a once-unfathomable low.

Four-time champion Italy failed to qualify for a third straight World Cup after getting beaten in a penalty shootout by 66th-ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina in their European playoff final on Tuesday.

Moise Kean scored early on for Italy, but then Azzurri center-back Alessandro Bastoni was sent off with a straight red card before the break and Bosnia substitute Haris Tabakovic equalized in the 79th minute to send the game into extra time at 1-1.

The defeat added more misery for Italy's once-proud national team after being eliminated by Sweden and North Macedonia, respectively, in the qualifying playoffs for the last two World Cups.

"It's too easy to say what's working and what's not working," Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso said. "The fact is that Italy has failed to qualify for three World Cups. We're having a tough time achieving our goals, both with the national team and with our clubs."

Bosnia won the shootout 4-1 and qualified for the first time since 2014 — its only previous appearance.

In the shootout, Pio Esposito and Bryan Cristante missed their spotkicks and United States-born Esmir Bajraktarevic converted the decisive penalty for Bosnia.

"We still don't believe it — that we're out and that it happened in this manner," Italy defender Leonardo Spinazzola said. "It's upsetting for everyone. For us, for our families, and for all the kids who have never seen Italy at a World Cup."

In Tuesday's other European playoff finals, Sweden, Turkiye and the Czech Republic all qualified.

Sweden beat Poland 3-2, Turkiye beat Kosovo 1-0 and the Czechs beat Denmark in a shootout.

Italy's latest ouster means that the 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006 champion will go at least 16 years without even playing a match at soccer's biggest event.

Italy's World Cup struggles go back all the way to the 2010 and 2014 editions, having failed to advance from its group on both occasions.

A European Championship win for the Azzurri in 2021 seemed to paper over the World Cup cracks.

Italy's last knockout match at a World Cup was when it won the title in 2006 by beating France in a penalty shootout.

"We realize we're in a huge crisis,"Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina said.

Prior to its current run, the only previous World Cup that Italy did not qualify for was in 1958.

Lost generation

An entire generation — basically anyone under 15 — has no memory of Italy playing in the World Cup. The last one, in 2014, ended in elimination to Uruguay in Brazil, a game mostly remembered for Luis Suarez's bite of Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder.

None of Italy's current players have ever participated in one.

The defeat will raise questions about the status of Gattuso, who took over from the fired Luciano Spalletti in June with the squad already in crisis mode following a defeat to Norway in its opening qualifier.

The Azzurri then went on a six-match winning streak before, again, losing again to Norway in November, finishing second in their group and ending up in the playoffs again.

Gattuso's Italy overcame a nervy, scoreless first half to beat Northern Ireland 2-0 at home in its playoff semifinal last week, but the Azzurri struggled even more against Bosnia inside the intimate but imposing 14,000-seat Bilino Polje Stadium in Zenica, which is surrounded by apartment blocks overlooking the field.

"I want to personally apologize since we didn't make it," Gattuso said. "Today talking about my future is not important."It hurts, it really hurts. More than hurting me, it hurts to see this group, which has really given everything in these months. I think we deserved to get back what we put in, and I honestly think it's too reductive and too immature to be talking about my future today.

"Here, we should be talking about Italy, about the national team shirt, that it's yet another blow even though this time (against Bosnia) we didn't deserve it, (overall) we deserved more, and that's why my future doesn't matter."

Gattuso has a contract until the end of this summer's World Cup, with an automatic renewal until 2028 if Italy had reached the finals in North America.

"I have to praise Gattuso. I think he's been, and he is, a great coach. I've asked him to stay on in charge of these players," Gravina said.

Mismatch on paper

On paper, it was a massive mismatch between 12th-ranked Italy and Bosnia, a team 54 places lower.

Italy has a population of nearly 60 million. Bosnia's is about 3.5 million.

The combined club salaries of Italy's players total nearly one billion euros ($1.16 billion). Bosnia's total is a seventh of that.

Bajraktarevic, who scored the winning penalty, was born in Appleton, Wisconsin.

He made his US debut in a January 2024 friendly against Slovenia, before switching his affiliation that August.

Agencies via Xinhua