Leonardo Spinazzola expressed regret over Italy’s “three or four” missed opportunities to win their World Cup play-off match against Bosnia and Herzegovina. He also stated he was “enormously” disappointed for the Italian children who will not see their national team participate in the final tournament.
For the third consecutive time, Italy will not feature at the FIFA World Cup after suffering a penalty shootout loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina in Tuesday evening’s play-off final in Zenica.
Moise Kean put the Azzurri ahead in the 15th minute, but a straight red card shown to centre-back Alessandro Bastoni just before halftime made the task significantly harder for Gennaro Gattuso’s squad. Haris Tabaković scored the equalizer in the 79th minute.
Despite managing to hold on until the penalty shootout, only Sandro Tonali successfully converted his spot-kick for Italy. Pio Esposito missed the first attempt, Bryan Cristante struck the crossbar with the third, and with Bosnia converting all four of their initial penalties, Italy’s World Cup hopes were dashed for another four years.
Spinazzola’s Disappointment After Italy’s World Cup Exit
“After playing 90 minutes with ten men, we fought tooth and nail to get to penalties; we had three or four chances to win it,” Spinazzola told RAI Sport after the final whistle.
“It’s an enormous disappointment for us, for our families, and for all the Italian children who won’t see Italy at a World Cup again. It’s so sad to see the young players crying, but they will have a better future.”
Italy believed Bosnia should also have been reduced to ten men when Sassuolo’s Tarik Muharemovic made a last-ditch tackle on Marco Palestra in extra time.
“Incidents decide the game; we knew it would be very difficult with ten men, but we still created several chances,” Spinazzola remarked. “There’s no point talking about that now; there is this enormous disappointment. It was certainly my last chance to reach a World Cup, but I feel bad for all of Italy.”
