Many tragedies have befallen Italy in the last 60 years. Dozens of governments have collapsed. Earthquakes and terrorism have shaken cities. The French started adding cream to carbonara.

But the failure of the national soccer team on Monday night to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1958 seems to be taking a place in the pantheon of Italian disasters.

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Italy, a soccer-crazed nation that has won the World Cup four times, had already lost the first match against Sweden in a two-leg playoff and needed more than Monday’s 0-0 tie in the return match to qualify for soccer’s premier tournament for national teams, which will be held in Russia in 2018.

Italy exited the last World Cup in the first round, a setback that had already prompted anxiety about the future of Italian soccer. But for a country that puts the game so central to its national identity, Monday night’s humiliation prompted an existential crisis.