Stojković out but not so down

Captain Vladimir Stojković insists his Serbia and Montenegro team-mates should have no regrets despite their UEFA European Under-21 Championship ending at the semi-final stage against Ukraine last night.

'Big effect'
The goalkeeper was on the wrong side of a 5-4 scoreline in the penalty shoot-out that followed an exciting 0-0 draw in Aveiro. However, he believes his team deserve praise for their performance after coming agonisingly close to victory themselves. "After I saved the first penalty in the shoot-out [from Olexandr Aliyev], it would have made a huge difference if we had then scored from our first attempt [through Boško Janković], but we didn't and that had a big psychological effect on us," explained the 22-year-old.

No medal
The remaining penalty-takers kept their nerve until, in sudden death, Serbia and Montenegro's Milan Purović missed. Stojković has little time to wonder what might have been though, as he is due to join Serbia and Montenegro's senior squad for the FIFA World Cup, but he did tell uefa.com: "It would have been great to be going to the World Cup with a medal. I am delighted with our overall performance, but disappointed for that reason. We have put a lot of effort into this tournament and I was never worried about our ability at this level. The players have been great and have met all the demands of the occasion."