Norway coach Per-Mathias Hogmo accepted his team were outplayed by Hungary in their Euro 2016 play-off.
Hungary qualified for their first major tournament in 30 years with a 2-1 win in Budapest on Sunday, sealing a 3-1 aggregate triumph.
Hogmo said Norway were simply outplayed in the tie, with their 1-0 loss in Oslo in the first leg particularly costly.
"First of all, congratulations to the Hungary team on their qualification for the finals in France next summer – they were better than us over the two legs," he said.
"I have been pleased with our qualification campaign but disappointed that we didn't come up to that level in the home game [on Thursday] and also tonight."
Hogmo lamented his side's failure to score at home and they fell further behind in the tie when Tamas Priskin opened the scoring in the 14th minute in Budapest.
The 55-year-old explained his decision to take off Mohamed Elyounoussi and Martin Odegaard at half-time, replacing the duo with Pal Andre Helland and Marcus Pedersen.
"Since we didn't score from our chances at home we picked an offensive team today," Hogmo said.
"It didn't succeed in the first half so we changed things around for the second half. Not scoring from the six or seven good chances we created at home was the problem."
