‘Hurt, disappointment and pain’ – FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying dreams unravel for Wales, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in play-offs

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It was a disappointing night for the home nations, with both Wales and Northern Ireland exiting FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifying at the play-off semi-final stage. Michael O'Neill's side were beaten 2-0 in Italy, while Craig Bellamy was hurting after seeing his Welsh team knocked out on penalties by Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Republic of Ireland failed to progress too in a scarily similar fashion.

Bellamy: Wales must be 'calm and patient' in play-off tie against Bosnia & Herzegovina

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Republic of Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland saw their dreams of appearing at the 2026 FIFA World Cup go up in smoke on Thursday on a heartbreaking night for many.

Craig Bellamy's side fell at the hands of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Michael O'Neill's men against Italy, while the Republic of Ireland suffered a similar fate away to Czechia.

Bellamy clearly felt the pain of a dramatic penalty shoot-out defeat in Cardiff, after Edin Dzeko's 86th-minute header dashed Welsh aspirations of a do-or-die decider against the Italians.

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"We're going to hurt, but there's a bright future. It's hard to think about now, even though I'm trying," Bellamy told BBC Sport.

"I'll think about that tomorrow morning because that hurt is sinking in now. It will be difficult to sleep off the back of this one, but it makes me even more determined.

"Tomorrow the sun will rise, and I'm going to watch that sunrise."

Dan James had thrashed the hosts into a 1-0 lead after half-time with a sensational long-range rocket and struck the woodwork barely eight minutes later.

But in their efforts to hold on to their slender advantage, Wales retreated and allowed Dzeko to nod home from a late inswinging corner.

"It got chaotic and that was the bit we didn't want with this team," said Bellamy.

"We allowed the chaos to creep in for 20 minutes and tried to see the game out. We're not built that way, we don't play that way.

"We have to keep the ball. I just couldn't quite get that message on. I do understand - it's a play-off, they had four centre-forwards on the pitch at one stage."

Despite Karl Darlow saving Ermedin Demirovic's opening penalty in the shoot-out, Brennan Johnson and Neco Williams could not convert Wales' final two spot-kicks.

"I am very proud but definitely disappointed. There was a lot of good, but it wasn't to be," added Bellamy.

"I got what I wanted from my team but, with 20 minutes left, we stopped playing and we just can't do that, even though it was understandable.

"It was a big lesson for us. We needed to see the game out with the ball."

Bosnia and Herzegovina will meet Italy in one of four play-off finals on Tuesday, March 31, after Gennaro Gattuso's side eased Northern Ireland out of the running in a 2-0 win.

Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean grabbed the goals at Bergamo's New Balance Arena to preserve Italian hopes of qualifying for a first World Cup in 12 years.

But despite obvious disappointment, head coach O'Neill was proud of his youthful team for going toe-to-toe with the four-time world champions.

"It's hard when you lose a game to realise the positives," said O'Neill. "The players are disappointed, and you have to feel that disappointment with them as well.

"But for a nation of our size, to come with a team of that age and play as we did, there are a lot more positives.

"When we reflect on the game and what we've done in this campaign overall, to be here at the play-off stage, play the way we played in the group, we have a lot more things to be positive about."

The average age of Northern Ireland's starting XI was just 22.5, with eight players in total aged 22 or younger: Pierce Charles, Brodie Spencer, Ruairi McConville, Terry Devlin, Justin Devenny, Shea Charles, Isaac Price, and Jamie Donley.

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O'Neill was also unable to call upon the likes of captain Conor Bradley, defensive lynchpin Dan Ballard and Preston North End midfielder Ali McCann, who were all ruled out through injury.

"Look, of course, we want the challenge all the time, but we've got to recognise where we are as a nation and what we have to do to get to a World Cup is extremely difficult," added O'Neill.

"For us to get to a World Cup, we have to get there at the expense of a nation like Italy, which is a huge challenge.

"We will take this forward when qualification comes for Euro 2028, when the players will be further along in their journey.

"We might have some additional players in the squad as well, but the squad is only going to continue to improve because we're not going to see a drop-off.

"The majority of this squad will remain together for a good few tournaments to come."

Republic of Ireland surrender two-goal lead to crash out

Like Wales, the Republic of Ireland were undone by an 86th-minute header and missed two penalties to bow out of qualification.

Heimir Hallgrimsson's side saw their two-goal lead melt away in Prague as Czechia fought back to 2-2 to seal a play-off showdown against Denmark.

Troy Parrott's penalty and a Matej Kovar own goal had the visitors cruising inside 23 minutes, but Patrik Schick's spot-kick reduced the damage in a thrilling first-half.

From there, Ladislav Krejci had the final say in normal time to extend the semi-final by an extra half-hour, and Hallgrimsson was left hurting after Alan Browne and Finn Azaz had their shoot-out efforts saved.

"Just pain. We only feel pain. When you go this far, obviously it is up to luck or a flip of a coin. So it's just pain that we feel obviously, being that close," Hallgrimsson told RTE.

"It was not a good football match. The match was never under control, either for us or them. It was long ball, crosses, set-pieces, duels. That is how the game was decided, in these moments.

"We talked about trying to take control of the game, to play more on the ground. There were a lot of emotions in the game. Neither team got a grip on it."

Czechia's opponents on Tuesday, Denmark, saw off North Macedonia with a comfortable 4-0 victory, while Kosovo and Turkey will go head-to-head after a 4-3 win over Slovakia and 1-0 win over Romania, respectively.

And in the other play-off final, Sweden defeated Ukraine 3-1 courtesy of a Viktor Gyokeres hat-trick to set up a date with Poland, who knocked out Albania with a 2-1 scoreline.

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