Italy coach Antonio Conte says his hands are tied as he has to choose from an ever-decreasing number of Italian players in Serie A, some of whom he admits possibly did not even warrant a recent call-up.
A 4-1 defeat to Germany on Wednesday undid much of the good work from five days earlier in a 1-1 draw with Spain.
Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon says people had "become too euphoric" after that promising draw in Udine, only to be brought back down to earth on Tuesday, and that view is shared by Conte, who says he can only do so much with the players at his disposal.
"Like I already said, I'm not going to criticise anybody because we've put in the maximum effort and let's not forget how we're recovering from a failure at the World Cup.
"But the number of players in Serie A I can choose from has been cut in half over the past decade, and we always knew there was a big gap between us and the big nations," he said on the Italian FA's website.
"When I say that the only players I can pick are the ones we've got here, I'd like to remind everybody that I didn't leave any potential Italy international out. This is the group I need to work with leading up to the European Championship."
While that statement would appear to rule out the chances of the likes of Andrea Pirlo and Daniele De Rossi forcing their way back into the reckoning, or Domenico Berardi playing his way into contention, Conte also suggested that some of the players who he did take a closer look at over the past few weeks should count themselves lucky to have been involved at all.
It is a scenario Conte says his predecessors never had to deal with, since they had more players to choose from, and consequently more quality.
"From 100 players in Serie A, I can only call up 34 of them, which is half the amount [Marcello] Lippi had," he said.
"I called up all the players who deserved it, and in some cases I even took a gamble on some players, while I would have liked a bit more time to try others. We've got to work with these players, and I have faith in them."
Conte, who is stepping down from his position after Euro 2016, will not see his players again until the end of the season, when he will name an enlarged squad for a training camp before submitting his final selection of 23 at the end of May.