Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo have won silver in beach volleyball at the Rio De Janeiro Olympics, bringing Italy's medals haul at the games to 24 including eight golds.
Before a raucous home crowd, Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Bruno Schmidt defeated Nicolai and Lupo 2-0 to win gold medals in the beach volleyball final Thursday on Rio's Copacabana beach.
The Italians accepted they had been well beaten.
"They are the best team in the world. Today we tried everything but they were better," Nicolai said.
The Netherlands defeated Russia earlier to take bronze, their country's first beach volleyball medal, in a close match.
Besides its eight golds, Italy has won 10 silver medals and six bronzes at Rio Olympics, which end on Sunday.