Italy coach Antonio Conte.
DPA/Rome
Coach Antonio Conte has said he was not disappointed after suffering his first defeat at the helm of the Italian national squad as Portugal edged them 1-0 in a friendly late Tuesday.
The defeat in Geneva closed a run of five wins and four draws since Conte took over last August.
It also failed to improve the world ranking of the Azzurri, who will not be first seeds in the qualifying draw for the 2018 World Cup hosted by Russia. The nine qualification groups of the UEFA zone are drawn on 25 July 2015 in St Petersburg.
Italy ranked 13th in Europe in early June and will not be in the top nine when the list is updated on July 9.
“These games are important because they help the players develop and give the coaches a lot of insight. I am not disappointed at all,” Conte said about the performance of his experimental team.
He added that he did look at the defeat as a step backward from Friday’s encouraging 1-1 draw at Croatia, which kept the Azzurri on pace to secure a berth at Euro 2016 - they are currently second in Group H, two points behind leaders Croatia.
“I really do not understand how Italy can be behind some national teams; it must be because of our form in recent years,” Conte said.
“I only focus on the present and the future. We have worked a lot in my first year as head coach, but there is still work to do. We have to, and we want to, improve.
“Of course it does not please me to lose, but sometimes defeats are part of the learning process. I would be more worried if we had only created one chance in every game we had played, but we had many chances tonight.
“We just need to be more clinical. There are moments that can change a match, for example, when (Leonardo) Bonucci hit the post.”
Eder scored the winner for Portugal, who missed star striker Cristiano Ronaldo, while Italy only had Bonucci, Andrea Pirlo and Antonio Candreva from their regular first team.
