Giorgio Chiellini has denied Italy were arrogant ahead of their ‘devastating’ play-off defeat against North Macedonia.
The Azzurri were expected to comfortably see off the challenge of the rank outsiders and advance their hopes of qualifying for Qatar 2022.
Roberto Mancini’s European Championship winners dominated for long spells but were made to pay for a series of costly misses with midfielder Jorginho spurning the best of those opportunities from the penalty spot.
Aleksandar Trajkovski proved to be the hero in injury time with a stunning effort from distance which beat the despairing dive of Gianluigi Donnarumma to send North Macedonia into ecstasy.
Juventus’ veteran defender Chiellini, like his teammates, was left crestfallen after the match and struggled to comprehend the repercussions of such a seismic shock.
He said: ‘It’s difficult to explain, I think we again had a good game and just didn’t score the goal. I don’t think anyone can say we were presumptuous.
‘We made mistakes from September to now and paid for them. I am proud of my teammates and this group, clearly we are distraught, we have to get restart.
‘A large void is now within us and we hope it can give us the strength to go forward in future. I hope it will still be with this coach, who has given so much to the Nazionale.
‘Hopefully we can then play in the World Cup in four years’ time, having unfortunately missed out.
‘It’s not like we didn’t create the chances, we had 32 shots on goal. We barely risked anything at the back either.
‘Maybe it’s difficult for us to read the situation from so close, but the lads gave their all and we hoped for a different result.’
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