Germany coach rues painful defeat

Germany shell-shocked by Euro 2000 humiliation

Germany coach Erich Ribbeck admitted the 3-0 defeat by Portugal that knocked the defending champions out of Euro 2000 was "extremely painful".

"I won't hide from the criticism for this performance," said Ribbeck, who will now face calls for him to resign.

"I've said before that if we went out in the group stage I could leave the job. But I won't say anything further about that now."

Ribbeck said: "After they scored the first goal, we had to witness a technically superior team, I would almost say, humiliate us.

"Portugal fully deserved their win and Germany didn't find the means to apply any pressure to stop them playing so freely. The defeat was all we deserved.

"It was visible our players lacked the power and physical strength to turn things around."

Ribbeck added: "I'm responsible for the team and I'm responsible for the way they played in this tournament."

Ashamed

Goalkeeper and captain Oliver Kahn said he felt ashamed.

Goalkeeper Oliver Kahn felt ashamed

"I am ashamed by this performance. That was the low point of the last two years, we players are responsible for this performance," Kahn said.

"We now need a new structure to set us up better for qualification for the 2002 World Cup."

Jens Nowotny said: "In the second half we simply gave up and there was no spark of a revival."

Delight

Portugal coach Humberto Coelho saw his team go from strength-to-strength even though he rested nine of the players who had started the last game against Romania.

Coelho said: "I'm very satisfied but I know in football you can win today and lose tomorrow and we have to be ready for this.

Humberto Coelho happy with his team

"It's a great joy for us but we have to stay cool."

And he rejected the idea that he had sent out a reserve team at the Feyenoord Stadium.

"There is no second team. We have 22 players and they are all here to play the European Championship," he added.