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HOUSTON — Kyle Teel, Sam Antonacci and Jac Caglianone homered as Italy built a big lead and held on to stun the United States 8-6 Tuesday night in the World Baseball Classic.

The U.S. is done with pool play at Houston’s Daikin Park and needs the Italians to beat Mexico Wednesday night to be guaranteed a spot in the quarterfinals. If Mexico beats Italy, the three teams will be knotted at 3-1 and the winners will be determined by a tiebreaker, with the team that allowed the most runs eliminated.

Italy starter Michael Lorenzen allowed two hits in 4 2/3 scoreless innings to keep the Americans off balance.

Pete Crow-Armstrong homered twice and drove in four runs, and Gunnar Henderson added a solo shot for the U.S., but the rally came up short when Greg Weissert struck out Aaron Judge with a runner on to end it.

Crow-Armstrong’s second homer, a shot to the second deck in right field, cut the lead to 8-6 with one out in the ninth. Bobby Witt Jr. singled and Henderson struck out before Judge whiffed to start the Italian celebration.

The U.S. was down by 8-1 with two out in the seventh when Crow-Armstrong hit a majestic three-run homer to right field.

Kyle Schwarber and Will Smith hit back-to-back singles with two out in the eighth before Roman Anthony’s RBI single on a line drive to left field. But Ron Marinaccio retired pinch-hitter Bryce Harper on a fly ball to end the inning.

Teel’s home run to the Crawford boxes in left field gave Italy an early lead with two out in the third. McLean then plunked Caglianone before Antonacci’s homer to the bullpen in right-center made it 3-0.

Caglianone’s two-run shot off Ryan Yarbrough pushed the lead to 5-0 with no outs in the fourth.

The Italians added a run on an error, another on a sacrifice fly and a third on a wild pitch by Brad Keller to push the lead to 8-0 in a sloppy sixth by the U.S.

The U.S. finally got on the board with Henderson’s homer in the sixth.

Inter signed Ronaldo and Vieri for world-record fees in the late 1990s, when Serie A was the envy of world football, blessed with the game’s most talented stars.

AC Milan then beat Juventus to win the Champions League in 2003, losing to Liverpool on penalties in the final two years later, before defeating the Reds to become European champions again in 2007.

While there have been more recent successes in Europe’s other competitions – Atalanta won the Europa League in 2024, Roma won the Conference League in 2021 – Jose Mourinho’s Inter were the last Italian side to win the Champions League in 2010.

Inter’s European exit comes despite being 10 points clear of rivals AC Milan in Serie A and a further four ahead of defending champions Napoli, who failed to make it out of the Champions League’s league phase.

“It is a piece of history,” said journalist Vincenzo Credendino. “Speaking about Italy and Inter, this is one of the worst pieces.

“Inter are the best in Italy, but maybe it is time to think not about what can happen in one or two years, but about 10 or 15 years – and on that side we can see generally Italian football is not on the same level of top European leagues.”

The national team must also win through a play-off in March to avoid missing out on a third successive World Cup this summer, having last lifted the trophy in 2006.

“It is a difficult time for Italian football and this shows it,” added European football expert Julien Laurens on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“Today, Inter Milan put pressure on but it was not enough from them. They have been the best team in Italy for the last few years. And Napoli as well, they haven’t even come close.

“It’s terrible for Italian football at the moment.”

Inter won five of their opening eight league phase games in Europe to finish 10th, with Juventus 13th and Atalanta 15th.

Yet in the play-offs, all have come unstuck against sides who finished lower in the table but play a more intense brand of football.

“What does it say about Italian football? That something needs to be changed,” added Verri.

“The level of Italian football is poor. It is a structural issue. We play very slow football. You can ask any manager in Italy and they will all say the same.

“I was talking to Claudio Ranieri the other day and he said: ‘Look, when I was in England at Leicester… people don’t train more than in Italy. They just do it with another intensity, and then they keep up that intensity during the games.’

“We play slow, and in Europe you suffer.”

Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has said the prospect of relegating their cross-city rivals is “not in his thought process at all”.

The Blades fan, who is unbeaten in his seven games against the Owls, said he disagreed with the notion that his side, who are 15th in the table, should cruise to a win.

“We’ll have done more preparation on this game than we have on any game this season and all the games other than the play-off final last season,” he told BBC Radio Sheffield.

“I’ve got complete respect for Henrik and a group of players… there’s talk of it being a mismatch or a gimme, whether it’s bookies’ odds or the narrative in the city… football just doesn’t work like that.

“The players have to play with a discipline and a control to win a game of football, to win a local derby.”

Wilder added: “We put a slide up about Macclesfield v Crystal Palace and Bodo/Glimt v Manchester City. There are all sorts of examples recently, let alone [in] the 100 years plus of football, the game isn’t decided on team sheets.

“We understand it’s basically their season on the line, we’re not daft. But we’ve got our fight, and ours has to be bigger than theirs.”

Mouat’s rink have an excellent record against Brad Jacobs’ team, and beat them in the last four of the worlds last spring.

But the Canadians knew they could improve their own chances – and inflict a little revenge – and they started strongly, opening a 3-1 lead after three ends.

The British team are considered the world’s best, though, and righted themselves. Capitalising on a slight drop off by their opponents, they took two themselves in the fourth and another two in the six to lead with four to play.

However, the clank of granite went against them in the seventh, an unfortunate bounce leaving Canada the chance of three, which they gladly took.

Mouat and his team needed to respond. They couldn’t. Instead, they gave up a steal to leave themselves with a three-point deficit with two ends to play.

It was a deficit that they could not overcome. And now, their aspirations of upgrading their silver medal from Beijing are no longer in their own hands.

GB’s women are also in a perilous position, and also must beat the United States on Wednesday (08:05), as well as Japan later in the day (18:05) and Italy on Thursday (13:05) if they are to scrape into the last four.