India, April 1 -- For those old enough to remember (for everyone else, there's YouTube), Pio Esposito's missed penalty would have felt similar to Roberto Baggio's in the final of the 1994 World Cup. Immediately the cameras turned to Gennaro Gattuso catching him standing hands in pocket, head bowed.

A player short after Alessandro Bastoni's red card in the 41st minute, Italy looked relieved taking the final qualifier against Bosnia and Herzegovina to penalties on Tuesday. They had Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal. His counterpart Nikola Vasilj had made a costly error leading to Moise Kean putting Italy ahead in the 15th minute.

Then Esposito missed and Bryan Cristante's shot bounced off the underside of the crossbar. Nearly 20 years ago, the...