Tough men do cry. It was the tearful face of Gianluigi Buffon which splashed across the sports pages everywhere on Tuesday — the morning after a disastrous night at the San Siro when Italy, four-time world champions and one of the greatest footballing aristocracies, failed to qualify for the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia.

Life had finally come a full circle for the strongman of Italian football — who held aloft the World Cup along with the Class of 2006, stuck with Juventus through thick and thin, and was thinking of one possible last hurrah with the Azzurri in Russia next year. However, sport can often be cruel and do not make way for fairy-tale endings, as we have seen with so many greats.

As Buffon was pursuing a dream of making his fifth appearance in the finals (it would have been sixth if you consider that he was an unused substitute in ’98), he perhaps didn’t realise that it was not the likes of Fabio Cannavaro, Andrea Pirlo or Alessandro Del Piero who kept him company anymore. Neither were the giant strikers like a Christian Vieri or Francesco Totti — who could break open the Swedish defence even with the vociferous backing of San Siro to overturn a 1-0 deficit and avert the disaster.

The deluge of post mortems point fingers at the gradual decline of Serie A, which has been hamstrung by lack of financial resources and an influx of imported talents. While the change of coach is now a formality (is Antonio Conte listening?), it would be interesting to find out how they cope with the crisis and get on with the game.

Now that the jigsaw for Russia 2018 has fallen into place, one cannot help but shed a quiet tear for the floundering Dutchmen as well. This is the second major tournament after Euro 2016 where they have failed to qualify, and the worrying part is that the dipping expectations from the ‘Clockwork Orange’ meant it did not raise as much of hue and cry either.

There’s no gainsaying that the shock exit of Italy and the erosion of Dutch power — the birthplace of total football — is bad news for European football. The country of Johan Cryuff have historically remained the most influential football nation not to have won the World Cup once — despite making three finals in 1974, 1978 and 2010.

The last one could have easily seen them correct the anomaly till a last-gasp strike by Andres Iniesta won Spain their first World Cup.

It’s a pity that the Netherlands, whose biggest honours remain the ’88 Euro Championship, failed to shed their underachievers’ tag like the way Spain did during their golden phase between 2008 and 2012. The awesome threesome of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard — who were instrumental in winning the Euro — also failed to set the record straight.

The cupboard looks awfully bare now, with an ageing Arjen Robben, who retired from international football following their exit from the qualifiers, and Wesley Sneijder remaining as the best advertisements of their football. The passionate and troublesome Dutch fan may even find it galling that in recent times, neighbours Belgium are being perceived as the growing superpower in European football with the likes of Hazard, De Bryune, Lukaku or Fellaini making their mark in club football.

It will be intriguing to find what the future holds …