Italian Football Federation chief Giancarlo Abete admits there's big room for improvement after Italy's 2-2 friendly draw with Austria.

"This Italy side is still developing and we need to remember that the Austrian League has already started," he said on Rai Uno.

"It's true that we tend to do badly in August but we need to try and reverse this tendency.

"Now the focus is on making a marked improvement before September 6 when we play our first World Cup qualifier with the world champion logo on our shirts."