Sweden manager Erik Hamren was all praise for his side following their impressive 2-0 win against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899 on Tuesday night, but at the same time admitted he was distraught to see them exit from the tournament, despite putting up a valiant show in
the last two games.
The Blue-Yellow went into the game against the Les Bleus in a bid to bow out from the competition on a high, after defeats against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ukraine-c3032 and England had already ruled them out from securing a quarterfinal place.
With the fans eager to see their team put up a good show against one of the tournament favourites, the players responded in an emphatic manner as goals from Swedish superstar http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sebastian-Larsson-c32733 helped them secure a 2-0 victory.
The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Sweden-c3015 boss could not help but commend the effort of his players in grabbing the consolation win, but admitted the feeling that they were capable of qualifying for the knock-out phase was difficult to digest.
While talking to reporters, he said: “I'm really happy about how we performed in these games and really happy that we won this game. I'm really proud of the players, but at the same time, it's a bit painful right now, it hurt. I think we're all a bit sad
after this game.”
Despite ending up on the losing side, Laurent Blanc’s side still managed to make it into the quarterfinals, where they will take on defending Champions http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 will square off against
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Italy-c2926.
Nevertheless, Hamren was particularly impressed with his defenders for preventing the French attackers from scoring, and went into raptures about goalkeeper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andreas-Isaksson-c5736 for making splendid saves during the course of the game.
The 54-year old also defended his decision of sitting out http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Christian-Wilhelmsson-c9145 in the game, insisting that his fault-finders were oblivious to the developments in the dressing room and were silenced after the win.
He added, “You never know if it's going to be better if we had done that [play Wilhelmsson], but of course I have been thinking about that.”
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