Flo admits the players were to blame

Tore Andre Flo realises it's all over for Norway

Norway's heartbreaking exit from the competition due to Spain's memorable fightback against Yugoslavia left a nation in mourning.

But while many fans back in Norway were disillusioned with the team's playing style, nobody was feeling the disappointment more than the players themselves.

"We have no one else to blame but ourselves. We feel only disappointment that we didn't perform much better," said Chelsea striker Tore Andre Flo.

Three matches involving Norway brought about just two goals but ultimately it was settling for a draw against Slovenia that cost Johan Nils Semb's side a place in the quarter-finals.

Victory against the highly fancied Spanish in their opening game seemed set to put the Norwegians in the driving seat in the group.

Berg: thought a draw would be enough

Even after a narrow defeat against Yugoslavia, Norway were well placed to reach the last eight.

Victory against Slovenia would have taken them through but once again their lack of goals was to prove their undoing.

Manchester United defender Henning Berg admitted that they sat back in the final match.

Berg said: "We knew Yugoslavia were 3-2 up and Slovenia were giving us trouble. In the end we were happy with a draw. We thought that was good enough but obviously it wasn't."

The long-ball attacking policy may not have won them too many new fans but Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer confirmed that the manner of their departure was hard to take.

"We would have loved to have gone home having played entertaining football but we didn't play as well as we can," said Solskjaer. "We know we can do much better than this. We weren't good enough."