Italy coach Roberto Mancini admits they weren’t good enough during the World Cup qualifiers.
The defending European champions now face a playoff to reach Qatar 2022.
Former Inter Milan coach Mancini told Sky Italia: “We’ve done something extraordinary, we’ve made millions of people happy, that’s the best thing, something we’re all proud of. But the European Championship is behind us, now we have to think about something else.’
“But this is football, this is sport. Sometimes you deserve to win and you don’t. We deserved to finish the round much earlier. We let ourselves down a bit and now we have to roll up our sleeves and do a great job in the two games.
“But I remain optimistic, just as I knew that our group with Switzerland would be difficult. I thought we would progress, but I knew it would be difficult. We dominated the match in Basel but this is football, fortunately we still have this chance and we have to do everything we can to go to Qatar.”