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Antonio Conte’s Italy have suffered a major setback as their friendly defeat to Portugal means the Azzurri will not be seeded for the 2018 World Cup Qualifying Draw.
Italy needed to beat the Seleccao in order to remain in the first pot and that didn’t appear to be such a difficult task with Cristiano Ronaldo missing.
The Azzurri largely dominated the encounter, but missed a host of clear-cut chances and eventually fell to a defeat as Eder scored the winner for the visitors.
That was the first defeat for Italy under Antonio Conte, albeit a costly one, having allowed Croatia to secure a top seed for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
Wales and Romania had earlier clinched top seed ranking, with Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, England, Portugal and Spain the remaining teams in pot one.
The qualifying draw is set to take place at Konstatinovsky Palace in Saint Petersburg in 25th July, with top teams in Europe, South America, CONCACAF, Asia, Australia and Africa set to learn their opponents in the qualifying campaign.