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 beat in a penalty shootout with 10 men at 66th-ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European playoffs on Tuesday.

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

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.

The latest ouster means that the 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006 champions 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 2010 and 2014, having failed to advance from its group on both occasions. Although the Azzurri did win the European Championship in 2021.

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

The only other World Cup that Italy did not qualify for was in 1958.

Coming to America: Graham Potter said he will “dust off my cowboy hat” after fulfilling his short-term mission to get Sweden to the World Cup.

The English coach was hired by Sweden in October after the national team’s abject qualifying campaign that contained two draws and six defeats from its eight group games.

The Swedes were afforded a second chance to qualifying through the playoffs by virtue of winning its lowly Nations League group the previous year and they took full advantage, beating Ukraine in the semifinals on Thursday and then Poland 3-2 in Stockholm on Tuesday.

Sweden will be playing Tunisia, the Netherlands, and then Japan in Dallas in Group F at the World Cup.

Potter said it was an “incredible” feeling, adding: “I’m going to have a beer and then think, ‘Wow, we’re going to Dallas.’ I’ll have to dust off my cowboy hat, won’t I?”

Viktor Gyokeres grabbed Sweden’s decisive goal in the 88th minute against Poland, which twice came from behind and looked the likelier winner heading into the final minutes.

“We weren’t perfect, but who cares?” Potter said. “We’re going to the World Cup, baby. Wow. Yeah, I can’t analyze it.”

After a turbulent six years working in the Premier League with Brighton, Chelsea and then West Ham, Potter took his first job in international soccer with Sweden.

It was the country where his coaching journey began in earnest – back in 2011 at Ostersund, a small, unheralded team that he guided from the fourth tier to Sweden’s top division.

Now he’s going to the World Cup.