The Italian sport newsrooms were heated on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, after Italy got eliminated from the World Cup, third time in a row they miss the FIFA competition: they won the trophy in 2006, then lost in group stage in 2010 and 2014, and failed to even qualify in 2018, 2022 and 2026. "We'll talk about it again in 2030 when we've gone 16 years without a single World Cup", said the editorial in la Gazzetta dello Sport on Wednesday, titled "The Third Apocalypse", where Luigi Garlando described the elimination as "an unforeseen catastrophe that has become the norm".
Most Italian newspapers had "Tutti a casa", "everybody home", or a similar phrase, on their front page. Tuttosport, a newspaper based in Turin, was very harsh, demanding "everyone out" and lamenting that "rivalries will never truly disappear among our Italian neighbours". "Bastoni sent off, Dimarco unavailable, Esposito missed his shot, and Frattesi was invisible. This shows that unity, even if demanded before the match, is far from being respected".
Corriere della Sera said that Bosnia "humiliated us", but journalist Fabrizio Roncone praised coach Gennaro Gattuso, and said he had nothing to do with the elimination, instead blaming Italian Football Federation (FIGC) President Gabriele Gravina, saying that "in a normal country he would resign".
And Sky said that Italy is now "the laughingstock of international football. Missing three World Cups in a row is truly unforgivable. How can a nation like this miss an entire generation of World Cups? Four-time champions, they haven't scored a single goal in a World Cup in 20 years."