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Italy's FIFA World Cup curse
Since Italy's successful 2006 FIFA World Cup run, they have been unable to reach the knockout stage, and have even failed to qualify for the tournament on multiple occasions. Despite Italy winning the tournament; defeating France in a penalty shootout, Zinedine Zidane's infamous headbutt in the final is thought to be the leading catalyst of this curse. Italy had a disastrous tournament in 2010 after finishing last place in a group with Paraguay, Slovakia, and New Zealand, of which they were seen as clear favorites. While this was originally perceived to be a result of the European World Cup champions' curse (provided Italy won the previous event), lackluster results in future World Cups have refuted that case. In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Italy were one again knocked out of the group stage by Uruguay and dark horses Costa Rica, with only England below them. In the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, Italy finished second in their qualifying group, behind Spain, advancing them to the playoff round where they would lose 1-0 to Sweden on aggregate, and would consequently fail to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1958. Poor results in Italy's last two group matches of 2022 World Cup qualifying would see them once again take part in the playoffs, this time losing 1-0 against North Macedonia.This would the first time Italy had ever missed the competition twice consecutively. These results are only apparent in the FIFA World Cup and FIFA World Cup qualification, as Italy have excelled in other competitions, winning the UEFA European Championship in 2021 and finishing runners-up in UEFA Euro 2012, and qualifying for UEFA Nations League Finals in 2021 and 2023.