Stunner: Italy won’t be in World Cup

Four-time champion Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in six decades after losing its playoff to Sweden 1-0 on aggregate.

They played to a goalless draw in the second leg in Milan on Monday.

“It’s a black moment for our game,” Italy midfielder Daniele De Rossi said. “Unfortunately, there will be a lot of time to analyze it. The only thing I can say is that we showed few ideas and not much in the way of tactics.”

Sweden advanced to its first World Cup since 2006.

It could have been worse for Italy, as Sweden was denied what looked like two clear-cut penalties for handballs, first by Matteo Darmian and then Andrea Barzagli.

Italy had a penalty appeal of its own waved off by referee Antonio Mateu Lahoz when Marco Parolo was tripped from behind by Ludwig Augsustinsson.

The Azzurri struggled to carve out clear chances against a solid Sweden side, and really tested goalkeeper Robin Olsen only once.

“We all need to look within and find a way to bounce back,” defender Giorgio Chiellini said. “We need to get back to the level we deserve to be.”

This will be only the second World Cup missed by Italy. The first was in 1958.

The last major competitions for which Italy failed to qualify were the 1984 and 1992 European Championships. College men: Two-time defending national champion Stanford (15-2-1) was given a firstround bye and two Bay Area schools will play each other in the NCAA tournament. Brackets were released by the NCAA on Monday.

Stanford, the tournament’s No. 9 seed, will host the winner of the Pacific-Fullerton State match at 5 p.m. Sunday. Cal (11-6) will host USF (9-8) at Edwards Stadium at 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

The 48-team field includes 24 conference champions who received automatic berths and 24 teams given at-large bids. Briefly: North Korea won on neutral ground again, moving the national team closer to a spot in the 2019 Asian Cup. Kim Yu Song scored a hat trick to lead the North Koreans over Malaysia 4-1 in Group B, four days after they beat the same team at the same venue by the same score in Asian Cup qualifying . ... The retooling U.S. men’s team will open its 2018 schedule with an exhibition against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Jan. 28 in Carson (Los Angeles County).