Spain centre-back Gerard Pique has claimed that his team 'did not deserve' to lose against Croatia in Tuesday night's Group D decider at Euro 2016.

La Roja entered the match needing a point to be sure of topping the section, but Sergio Ramos missed a second-half penalty as Croatia recorded a 2-1 win in Bordeaux.

Spain will now face Italy in the knockout round of the competition on Monday night, but Pique is still confident that his team can secure a third straight European Championship crown.

"We deserved better. They scored at the worst times, they weren't doing a lot and caught us on the counter-attack. We have to face what remains, which is to play against the best, but that doesn't worry me a lot," AS quotes Pique as saying.

"We've qualified. Obviously I would have liked us to be first. We have a hard path, but we're confident. We've shown we can play good football. We're together as one. This is a country with Barcelona and Real Madrid very divided, but we have to be together and be united. We have a unique opportunity to win something big.

"We took the game where we wanted at 1-1. Overall we were in control and I don't think they were better than us. This path will be more difficult. They'll also have a difficult path. They're dangerous and we'll have to study as well as we do to overcome them."

Nikola Kalinic and Ivan Perisic scored for Croatia after Alvaro Morata had netted his third goal of the competition in the seventh minute of the Group D clash.