FIFA World Cup 2014: Prandelli Focusing on Italy's Final Group Fixture Against Uruguay After Costa Rica Loss

Italy head coach Cesare Prandelli has shifted his focus to the Azzurri's final group fixture against Uruguay after his side's unexpected 0-1 loss to Costa Rica on Friday.

Early missed chances cost Italy as they were unable to find a reply to Bryan Ruiz's late first half goal despite throwing the kitchen sink at the Costa Ricans in the latter part of the game.

Now with Costa Rica through to the round of sixteen and England eliminated from the 2014 World Cup, Uruguay and Italy have to battle it out for a place in the knockout stages of the competition.

And Prandelli, who feels that Italy's approach against Costa Rica was wrong,  insists that Italy are now solely focusing on doing well in their final group game against Uruguay on 24 June.

"We have another game to play and clearly the approach must be different than this. I tried to change something, but also those who came on didn't make the difference. We have tried also to have a numerical superiority in the midfield, but we weren't quick," Prandelli told Sky News

"If we had scored one of the chances Mario Balotelli had, probably it would have been different. But we must think only about recovering.. We will give everything against Uruguay."

Despite being well aware of the difficulty of Group D, Italy were not expecting to lose against Costa Rica.  And Prandelli refused to blame his tactics for the loss.

"We knew this would be a particularly tough group. We will try to recover all our energy for the Uruguay game. We didn't get our tactics wrong. They were very, very aggressive and we were trying to find different ways into the game but we didn't manage it. It has been a bad loss," he added.

Forward Antonio Cassano, who came in as a substitute for Thiago Motta after the first half, echoed Prandelli's thoughts, insists that Italy must bounce back in their final group game against Uruguay.

"The most important thing is to recover energies. We will play a big game against Uruguay, and the loss hasn't been a physical problem," said Cassano.

Meanwhile Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon lauded Costa Rica, the Group D underdogs, for registering back-to-back victories in the so-called "Group of Death."

"We thought to do better, we thought to prepare in a good way for the match and we believed we would make it hard for them and win. Instead, we have had more difficulty and Costa Rica managed the match well after taking the lead," said the Juventus goalkeeper.