Cannavaro, however, said Uzbekistan's debut appearance should be viewed as their first step.

 

"We have to understand that Uzbekistan football needs to improve," said Cannavaro, who led Italy to the world title in 2006.

 

"Uzbekistan football needs to continue investing money in academies, investing money in youth players, because it's the only way to try to have Uzbekistan in the World Cup in the next 20-30 years."

Uzbekistan looked to be on course for victory after Eldor Shomurodov put them ahead in the 10th minute but they wilted under incessant pressure to concede three times in the final 22 minutes.

"We made some mistakes, of course, but I cannot complain about my players. I never will complain about my players because I know and I told you, you were in the press conference and you know what I said the first day when we saw the draw.

"The World Cup is brutal. They gave everything? Yes. They are sad in the changing room. Wow, my friend, believe me. They suffer more than anyone in Uzbekistan."

The tactician admitted that nerves got the better of his players as the match progressed.

 

"The fear of winning crept in. We went into the dressing room at half-time and when we came back out, I already told them, we needed to keep raising the tempo and keep our defensive line higher.

 

"I told them how to play and what to do, because Congo DR were pushing their wing-backs onto our full-backs, which meant there was a lot of space to attack behind them.

 

"Instead, we kept coming short to receive the ball with our backs to goal, and in matches like this, 99 times out of 100 you lose the ball that way."