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Three victories in a row should be four.
Sweden missed several important players and needed to beat Italy for a chance to reach the European Under-21 Championship in Slovenia and Hungary this summer.
A victory would give Sweden a chance to reach the championship as one of the top five group runners-up.
But the jubilation came when Italy clearly won 4-1 in Pisa.
After a spirited start by Sweden, it was group leaders Italy who took over the match. Venezia’s Youssef Maleh had a dream hit as he volleyed and found himself 1-0 behind Pontus Dahlberg in the 27th minute.
Sweden rich in goals in the second half
The 2-0 would come directly in the second half. Giacomo Raspadori from Sassuolo was booked for a foul.
Successful player Jesper Karlsson, now at AZ Alkmaar, scored 2-1 minutes later and gave Sweden some contact.
But ten minutes later he would crash back behind Dahlberg. The Swedish defense did not keep pace when Italy played well and Raspadori scored his second goal of the day.
The 3-1 score with the hour played meant that Sweden needed to score three goals to reach the expected second place. Federation captain Claes Eriksson made an offensive effort when they replaced Max Svensson and Paulos Abraham and moved the team forward.
However, Gianluca Scamacca made a spectacular save, and Gianluca Scamacca was the scorer.
The defeat means that Sweden will miss the European Under-21 Championship. Instead, Ireland and Iceland now make up the spot as second best behind Italy.
This is how Sweden played: Dahlberg – Beijmo, Vagic, Henriksson, Kralj – Bengtsson, Hellborg, Gigovic, Karlsson – Nygren, Almqvist.
