Italy and Holland among highest-ranked nations to miss major tournaments

Italy will miss the World Cup in Qatar after hilariously ruining their play-offs. They are just the latest major nation to cave in qualifying.

Since 2010, here are the best ranked nations according to FIFA for staying at home during major tournaments…

World Cup 2010 – Croatia (FIFA Ranking: 10)England got something of a revenge for being kicked out of the 2008 European Championships by Croatia by leaving Slaven Bilic's men at home when the rest of the top 10 of FIFA was cheerful for South Africa.

The Three Lions didn't laugh for long, mind you, as they had a steamy moment in the final where they scraped a singles group before being humiliated 4-1 by Germany. At least they were there, which Croatia weren't after finishing third in the qualifying group dominated by England, while Ukraine took second place to progress through the play-offs.

Croatia were beaten 5-1, 4-1 by Sven's men in qualifying, with Theo Walcott's hat-trick capping a memorable night in Zagreb for England. All of this led Bilic to stay in Europe, along with Luka Modric and Mario Mandzukic. Russia and Egypt, the 11th and 12th countries in the ranking, were also absent.

Euro 2012 – Switzerland (21) Fifty-one nations sought to join co-hosts Poland and Ukraine in the final, with Switzerland the highest-seeded of the 37 teams to miss out.

Switzerland stayed at home after finishing third in a qualifying group again dominated by England, who remained unbeaten under Fabio Capello. The Swiss were edged out by Montenegro, who took the play-off spot, and quickly squandered it by losing both legs to the Czech Republic.

Switzerland didn't even make it to the last day of qualifying. Ottmar Hitzfeld's side were held by a Wales side ranked 90th in the world, while Montenegro drew with England to secure the play-off spot with one game to spare.

England player ratings as Southgate men obediently succumb to Nations League relegation

World Cup 2014 – Ukraine (17) England once again played a part in the top-ranked nation by missing out on a major tournament, with the Three Lions topping Qualifying Group H by just one point. advance on Ukraine.

This led to Ukraine taking on France in the qualifying play-offs. And it all started so well, with the hosts winning the first leg 2-0 in Kyiv.

Then they screwed it up. Mamadou Sakho scored twice either side of a Karim Benzema goal in Paris to send France to Brazil. It was the latest in a long string of play-off failures for Ukraine, which suffered the same fate at the 1998, 2002 and 2010 World Cups.

Euro 2016 – Holland (14) Holland failed to reach a major tournament for the first time since 2002 after failing to take one of three qualifying spots up for grabs in a group of six.< /p>

The Dutch finished fourth behind the Czech Republic, Iceland and Turkey, with the Czechs ending Oranje's hopes in the penultimate game. The hosts lost 3-2 in Amsterdam, with Robin van Persie's own goal proving decisive.

Boss Danny Blind tried to look to the future: "It's very disappointing for the players, for me, for the Netherlands, but we have to look to the future and the new goal is to qualify for the World Cup in Russia."

They missed that too.

World Cup 2018 – Chile (9) The Netherlands missed back-to-back major tournaments by knocking out Russia and Italy were also absent, but it was Chile who suffered the most in qualifying, much to the amusement of a continent.

Chile were the defending Copa America champions and, frankly, were starting to please everyone with their bravado. "It's the best national team in the world. It's the one who plays the best. It doesn't matter who the rival is, we always play the same way," Arturo Vida said in 2016. A year later they were wiping the cream English of their chops.

Despite overturning a 0-0 draw with Bolivia on the pitch, Chile still went to the final day of qualifying needing a result, but sitting in third place with five qualifiers, he was supposed to qualify. Then they lost 3-0 against Brazil, already qualified, to slip to sixth place.

Euro 2020 – Serbia (25) Expanding the European Championships from 16 teams to 24 means nations really have to screw up if they miss a party spread across the continent.

Serbia did exactly that by opening the door to Scotland. After failing to qualify in their group, with Ukraine and Portugal qualifying, the Serbs had to endure the play-offs.

They had the home advantage against Scotland but allowed Steve Clarke's side to dominate regulation time, Luka Jovic's 90th-minute equalizer saving their skin. B...