Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini said his side's 1-0 defeat to Genoa was hard to stomach, as the result all but ended their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season.
The Nerazzurri had enough chances to win the match, but a late Sebastian De Maio goal earned the hosts all three points and saw Inter slip seven points behind Roma in the hunt for third place, with just four games of the season remaining.
"Unfortunately we couldn't finish on a number of occasions and then we went to sleep for their goal, as has happened several times this season," he said on the club's official website. "We need to improve in front of goal because with all the chances we create we need to be scoring more often. It was a crazy match.
"The team produced a great performance and we definitely should have won. We had so many chances that we deserved to be 2-0 up by the end of the first half. It's never an easy match here. Last season we conceded in the 93rd minute and that was harder on us than we deserved."
The Europa League therefore beckons for Inter, barring a dramatic turn of events over the final few weeks of the season.
"It was very difficult [to catch Roma] before and it's very difficult now," Mancini said. "As I've said, we need to work hard because we're struggling to score and we're not able to score the goals we deserve."
Inter's advantage over Fiorentina was cut to just two points, with fourth securing an automatic entry into the Europa League group stage and fifth place entering only into the third qualifying round, unless AC Milan are beaten in the final of the Coppa Italia.
In that case the side finishing fifth will also enter into the group stage and the team in sixth would then enter the qualifying rounds.