Beaten Swiss look forward to 2008

Defender Ludovic Magnin said Switzerland's 3-0 penalty shoot-out defeat by Ukraine was a terrible way to go out of the FIFA World Cup finals, but was keen to look ahead to the 2008 UEFA European Championship.

'Proud'
A match of few chances had finished scoreless after 120 minutes before the Swiss missed all three of their penalties - the first time a team had failed to score in a shoot-out at the FIFA World Cup. "It's terrible. It's so sad to lose this way but football is not always fair," said Magnin. "We've achieved a lot and I think the whole of Switzerland is proud of us. Now we have to pick ourselves up and look forward to co-hosting UEFA EURO 2008™."

'Fought like lions'
Magnin continued: "It really hurts. We played so well and then you lose the thing. Football isn't always fair. We can keep our head up and go home now. It's a giant frustration. We experienced something unique here. We're going home without conceding a goal. We fought like lions. We're just sorry that we didn't go further. Maybe we just didn't have enough experience. Next time we'll do it better."

Co-hosts
Switzerland can now build for the future since they do not have to qualify for their next major tournament because they are co-hosting the 2008 UEFA European Championship with Austria. Qualifying gets under way on 16 August.