Manuel Locatelli slammed Italy’s “fragile” performance against Norway, noting that they let themselves down by missing out on automatic World Cup qualification.

Italy suffered a 4-1 defeat to Norway in Milan, with Antonio Nusa, Erling Haaland and Jorgen Strand Larsen all scoring in the second half for the visitors after Francisco Pio Esposito’s early opener.

As such, the Azzurri finished second in Group I, six points behind Norway, who had a perfect record, meaning they will go into the World Cup qualification play-offs for the third consecutive time.

Italy had dominated the first half, racking up seven shots worth 0.6 expected goals, though their opener came from what was their only attempt on target. Norway had one off-target effort.

But after the break, Gennaro Gattuso’s side had eight shots to Norway’s 12, and despite getting three of those on target, they could not find a way past Orjan Nyland again.

“Our qualification was compromised in Oslo [a 3-0 defeat to Norway in the first qualifier], but we should’ve done better [on Sunday],” Locatelli told Sky Sport Italia.

“We tried to score the second goal, but then were fragile, and this must not happen again. We’ve got to see where we got it wrong, as, in certain moments, we need to stay more united.

“This must not be our level. We can and must do better.

“Now we’ll wait for the draw and hope to arrive in March with a very different attitude.

“Norway are of a very high level, but we still should’ve done better. We have to take responsibility and do better in March.”

This defeat was Gattuso’s first since taking over in June. He had won all five of his matches beforehand.

Italy have failed to reach the World Cup in both of their previous play-off attempts, losing to Sweden in 2018 before North Macedonia stunned them in 2022.

A second-place finish in Group I always looked likely – they needed a nine-goal swing to top the group ahead of Norway – but Gattuso apologised to the fans for their second-half collapse.

“We first and foremost have to apologise to our fans, because 4-1 is a heavy result,” Gattuso told RAI Sport.

“It’s a pity, as the first half was very good, we were a real team, but the biggest disappointment is that the second half was not up to those standards.

“Congratulations to Norway, but we start again from the first half, where we did what we were meant to do, then we struggled a lot after the break.

“We lost our shape, as in the first half we were pressing in the right way, but then we started to lose the ball a bit too cheaply, give Norway some space to play in. We lost the ball, misplaced passes and got pushed back. That’s what happened.”