‘An unacceptable disgrace’: anger and sadness as Italy miss out on World Cup again

• Italy fail to qualify for third World Cup in a row

• ‘We are a population of failures. End of story’

“Let’s just leave it be,” said Valentino del Duca. The restaurant worker from Rome was in no mood to talk about football after the Italian national team delivered another agonising blow, missing out on qualification for the World Cup finals for the third time in a row.

Corriere della Sera called the elimination, which came after Italy suffered a 4-1 penalty shootout defeat to Bosnia in a playoff, the “World Cup curse” while Gazzetta dello Sport marked it the “Third apocalypse”.