Rossi: Development won't always be easy for our young team

Rossi's team overcame a two-goal deficit in Lithuania in that second period, but couldn't find a winning goal which would have secured Euro 2024 qualification with two matches to spare. Here is the head coach's assessment of the game:

"In the first half, we left too much space for the Lithuanian players to exploit and they deservedly scored two goals," Rossi said. "Everyone must understand that if you don't have the right attitude in each match, any game can easily turn into a nightmare. That's exactly what happened in the first half today. The poor performance in the first half was not about tactics, because let's think about it: our lineup showed only one change in personnel and Szoboszlai played a little deeper, which we wanted in order to make our game more attacking. We tried to play in a particular way, but the poor quality pitch didn't allow us to do so. We didn't win a single 50/50 and the opponent played well, played aggressive football, and made excellent use of the areas that opened up.

Being honest, even seven or eight substitutions would have been justified during the break. We only changed a few things, but our game changed a lot and the players worked together better in the second half, which meant we gained the upper hand, scored two goals and could have scored even more, but today we were not as lucky as we were against Serbia. We can't be satisfied with the result, but after seeing the first half, we've no reason to complain so we have to accept the draw. I take responsibility for the first half, but as I said before the game, we are a young, developing team, who are on the right track. However, development is not always smooth and sometimes it stops completely so in such cases, we have to resume again. This is the situation here too and I hope the team shows a different face against Bulgaria".