The Italian players in Inter’s team have not taken the Italian national team’s failure to qualify for the World Cup finals well, according to midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu.

Speaking to the press, as reported by L’Interista, the 28-year-old acknowledged that there is a sour mood among the Italians in the squad at the shock elimination via a 1-0 loss to North Macedonia on Thursday.

Italy will not have expected to have exited from the qualification process for this year’s World Cup as early as they did, but the sluggish performance they produced to fall to defeat against North Macedonia has condemned them to sit on the sidelines for a second successive tournament.

Two Inter players were in the Azzurri team for the match, defender Alessandro Bastoni and midfielder Nicolo Barella, whilst a number of Italians in the Nerazzurri squad were not called up to the national team.

Calhanoglu’s Turkish national side were also eliminated in a qualifying playoff at the hands of Portugal, and he said that “We wanted to play against Italy in the final but it didn’t happen.”

“My teammates called me and they were very angry,” he added, “I think for they were even tougher because they lost to North Macedonia.”