Emanuele Giaccherini beats Thibaut Courtois to give Italy the lead against Belgium

Thibaut Courtois says Belgium's Euro 2016 meeting with Ireland on Saturday has become a must-win match after their 2-0 defeat to Italy.

Marc Wilmots' team are the highest-placed Europeans in the world rankings in second place, and travelled to France with high hopes of reaching the latter stages of the tournament.

They now sit bottom of Group E after the Irish drew 1-1 with Sweden in Paris and Chelsea goalkeeper Courtois concedes an immediate upturn in results is required to avoid elimination.

He told uefa.com: "I'm really disappointed. I don't think we did enough except towards the end when we created a few chances but not enough to score."

"It was Italy who had the best chances. They were organised and tactically they were the better team. It was a really tough game and on Saturday we have to go out and win now."

Courtois looks downcast after conceding the first goal

"We knew it was going to be a tough game and they defended really well. I don't think they created any real clear-cut chances to kill off the game."

"The last goal was a counter attack and it came from a second ball, which we weren't solid enough to go and claim. They were quicker to it than us."

"On Saturday we need to go out there and do more. The first match is always very important, especially against a team like Italy - if you win that, then you're in a good position."

"But we're lucky the other match ended 1-1. Now we have to win the other two matches and be a better team."

Courtois and Jan Vertonghen look on as Graziano Pelle scores the goal which sealed Italy's 2-0 win

Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen admitted Belgium had failed to live up to their billing against Antonio Conte's Italians.

He said: "It was a disappointing result for us. We had expected more. We knew we would be up against a really good opponent but it's a shame we lost 2-0."

"Their defence was excellent. We knew we would not get many chances and if we did, we knew we'd have to score and unfortunately we didn't."