I'm still in shock how we can't see Italy in this tournament. They were just eliminated by North Macedonia and couldn't even fight for their World Cup ticket against Portugal in the last round of the qualification. This is definitely unacceptable for me. Because Italy have a wonderful squad normally. They were the champions of the Euro 2020 too. A team like this shouldn't even struggle against a team like North Macedonia. I would have really liked to see them here.
There are a few teams missing out. Russia and Italy are missing from UEFA, Chile from CONMEBOL and Nigeria from the CAF. Unfortunately world cup only have 32 slots and one or two of the best teams miss out during qualification every time. Anyway, the chances will be lower for 2026 edition, as the number of participants is going up from 32 to 48. But the increase is mostly coming from AFC and CAF, so we may still witness a few of the good teams from Europe and South America failing to qualify for the main tournament.