The Italians were defeated for the first time since 2004, under the guidance of Marcello Lippi, as Brazil ran away with a fairly convincing 2-0 victory.
Despite playing extremely poorly in the first half, the Azzurri fought back in the second, and had a number of opportunities to give themselves a chance of taking a result away from the clash, mainly through the likes of Luca Toni and Giuseppe Rossi, who impressed at times in the latter stages.
At the completion of the contest, Marcello Lippi was understandably disappointed with the result, however he did stress the fact that at this point in time, their South American opponents are in much better shape, and are a much stronger squad, meaning that his men have a lot more work to do.
At this moment, Brazil are stronger than us, Lippi confessed to Rai in an interview.
Maybe in a year and a half we will be ourselves again or hopefully even before then.
They won the derby of the world, but only for now, he added.
They have players with special features, most of whom are technically gifted.
We are not as strong as we would like to be at the moment and we have a lot of improving to do.
We were a little frightened at times, so we made it hard for ourselves tonight, Lippi concluded.
The Azzurri will have another crack at the Brazilians later in the year, when the two nations do battle in South Africa in the Confederations Cup.
Despite playing extremely poorly in the first half, the Azzurri fought back in the second, and had a number of opportunities to give themselves a chance of taking a result away from the clash, mainly through the likes of Luca Toni and Giuseppe Rossi, who impressed at times in the latter stages.
At the completion of the contest, Marcello Lippi was understandably disappointed with the result, however he did stress the fact that at this point in time, their South American opponents are in much better shape, and are a much stronger squad, meaning that his men have a lot more work to do.
At this moment, Brazil are stronger than us, Lippi confessed to Rai in an interview.
Maybe in a year and a half we will be ourselves again or hopefully even before then.
They won the derby of the world, but only for now, he added.
They have players with special features, most of whom are technically gifted.
We are not as strong as we would like to be at the moment and we have a lot of improving to do.
We were a little frightened at times, so we made it hard for ourselves tonight, Lippi concluded.
The Azzurri will have another crack at the Brazilians later in the year, when the two nations do battle in South Africa in the Confederations Cup.