The Republic of Ireland Under-21s missed out on qualification for Euro 2025 after drawing 1-1 with Italy in Trieste.
Cesare Casadei opened the scoring for the Italians with Andrew Moran equalising in the second half for the Republic.
The result helped Italy finish top of Group A to seal their place in next year’s tournament.
The draw was not enough for Jim Crawford’s side to make the play-offs however, despite finishing on 19 points, level with Norway.
Norway’s 3-0 win against Turkey in Tuesday’s other game saw them finish second and book their place in the play-offs due to their better head-to-head record against the Irish.
The late and controversial equaliser conceded against Norway on Friday night at Turner’s Cross alongside the defeat in Oslo, proved to be fatal for the Republic’s hopes of reaching the tournament in Slovakia.
It was always going to be a tough task for the Irish against an Italian side that had not tasted defeat in the group, but they made a bright start in Trieste.
They almost scored on 17 minutes as Sean Roughan floated in a corner to Johnny Kenny.
His header appeared to be a routine save for Sebastiano Desplanches, but he spilled the ball back to the forward, whose snapshot was then cleared off the line by Nicolo Bertola.
Bertola made a timely intervention again on 23 minutes, stopping Baba Adeeko’s effort from crossing the line after another Irish corner caused Italy problems.
That proved crucial as Italy launched a swift counter attack and scored the opener just seconds later.
Captain Willy Gnonto beat Roughan and cut the ball back to Casadei, who found the far corner with a low strike.
Gnonto then saw a powerful strike tipped onto the crossbar by Tiernan Brooks.
Things almost went from bad to worse for the Republic on 36 minutes when Italy were awarded a penalty after Anselmo Garcia McNulty brought down Tommaso Baldanzi.
Leeds United man Gnonto stepped up but blazed his spot kick over the crossbar.
And the Republic took advantage of the let off as they got back into the game on 66 minutes.
Captain Andrew Moran stroked into the bottom corner after meeting substitute Aidomo Emakhu’s cross.
The Republic pressed hard but were unable to find a winner despite Emakhu going agonisingly close in injury time.