Tonight’s match between the national football teams of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Italy at the “Bilino Polje” Stadium in Zenica (8:45 p.m.), one of the four final matches of the European qualifiers for this year’s World Cup in Canada, the United States and Mexico, will also be a duel between teams that have so far failed to qualify for a major world competition through the play-offs.
This will be a duel that will attract the most attention from the world sports community, because Italy, which has won the world championship title four times, missed the previous two World Cups. The winner of tonight’s match will fill Group B, which will feature the national teams of Switzerland, Canada and Qatar.
Italy has already tried unsuccessfully to qualify for the World Cup through the play-offs twice – in 2018 in Russia and in 2022 in Qatar, while Bosnia and Herzegovina has only played in the play-offs for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and four times in the play-offs for the European Championships.
The four-time world champions Italy, who last won the title in 2006 in Germany and last appeared at the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, had not scored a single goal until Thursday night’s semi-final win in Bergamo against Northern Ireland (2-0).
In March 2022, as hosts in Palermo, they conceded a goal in injury time and were eliminated by North Macedonia (0-1), while in November 2017 they were defeated away to Sweden (1-0), while in the return match at home they played goalless and for the first time since 1958 they failed to qualify for the World Cup.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the other hand, made it to the World Cup for the first and only time in 2010, where the opponent was Portugal. Portugal won 1-0 at home, and in the return match in Zenica it was an identical 1-0 for the Portuguese. BiH failed to qualify for the World Cup at that time, but four years later secured a direct place in the World Cup in Brazil.
The “Dragons”’ struggles with the play-offs continued in the decisive matches for the Euro. So in 2012, they were defeated again by Portugal, after the first match in Zenica ended goalless, in the return match with a score of 2:6. In the play-offs for Euro 2016, BiH was eliminated by the Republic of Ireland, and the first match in Zenica also ended in a draw with a score of 1:1. In the return match in Dublin, Ireland won with a score of 2:0 and qualified for the European Championship with a score of 3:1 on aggregate.
In the play-offs for EURO 2020, which were played a year later due to the coronavirus pandemic, the “Dragons” were stopped by Northern Ireland in the semi-finals at the “Grbavica” Stadium in Sarajevo. The match ended 1:1, but Northern Ireland went on to win on penalties (4:3), who secured a place in the play-off final.
The last play-off, in March 2024, was also ended in the semi-finals, but this time by Ukraine, who overturned the deficit and won 2:1 in Zenica.
However, after a 1:1 draw in regular time and a penalty shoot-out against Wales in Cardiff on Thursday night, Bosnia and Herzegovina managed to secure their first win in the play-offs and earn a chance to fight for their second place in the World Cup.
BiH is, along with Kosovo, the only team from the third pot – which also included Ireland and Albania – to have qualified for the play-off finals, in which Italy, Turkey and Denmark will play from the first pot, and the Czech Republic from the second pot, while Sweden is the only team from the fourth pot of the draw for this play-off to have qualified for the finals.
The fourth pot contains the teams that qualified for the play-off through their appearances in the UEFA Nations League: Sweden, North Macedonia, Northern Ireland and Romania.
Kosovo defeated Slovakia 4:3 away in the semi-finals, Turkey defeated Romania 1:0 at home, and Sweden defeated Ukraine 3:1 as a guest in Valencia. The Czech Republic, after losing 2:0, managed to equalize to 2:2 and advance to the penalty shoot-out against the Republic of Ireland after extra time. Denmark defeated North Macedonia 4:0 in Copenhagen.
So tonight, at the same time, the following teams will play: Czech Republic – Denmark (Prague), Kosovo – Turkey (Pristina) and Sweden – Poland (Solna).
