Peacock praises England's reaction to adversity

John Peacock, England manager
I thought we started the first ten minutes quite brightly and then we imploded a little bit. A lot of our individual errors were not passing the ball quickly enough. I have to give credit to the Portuguese as they're a very, very good side and make it difficult to get through them. We were very fortunate to go into half-time at 0-0. We had to have a few words and try and regroup to get them back to where I know they can be. I thought we were excellent in the second half; they raised the tempo, they were making better decisions, moving the ball quicker.

They have got another gear. If they play like they did in the first half, they won't win a final on Wednesday. I'm not expecting them to play that first 40 minutes as they did; I'm expecting them to go out and play the second 40 minutes, which I thought was top class.

There were one or two going through a difficult time out there in the first half and, I have to say, from a character point of view, they dug deep. They regrouped collectively and I think that's great character. If you're going to win anything, you've got to have characters in your side who can come back from a bit of adversity.

Patrick Roberts, England forward
This is what we set out to do at the start of the tournament, so to get there and be in the final is a great achievement. They hit the bar and post a few times, so we were thankful for that. We just had to keep going and try and get a result, which we did. [At half-time, Peacock] talked about what we could do in the second half; he was talking about being quicker at the back, being more organised. We did what he said and we got the result.

Emilio Peixe, Portugal coach
The main feeling is one of sadness when I think we deserved to reach the final. I think that because of the quality we showed we deserve to be in the final, because of how organised we were, our individual ability. I think we played the best football at this European Championship and we're really pleased about that – as well as being sad. We are very satisfied and proud to be Portuguese and proud of our performance during this championship.

This is a process, a development process. It's clear that for these young players this was a very important moment. They have to make the most of the opportunity they've had as we've made a very positive impression here. We just wanted to have a different ending to our story.

Renato Sanches, Portugal forward
England are a good team but I think it was our own fault that we lost because we were not effective enough and we were also a little bit short of luck. We hit the woodwork three times in the first half and we were dominating the game totally. They scored the first goal and we got control back of the game, but then the second came because we were pushing forward – the team structure broke.

This is a top competition and there were many Portuguese players who would like to be in my place. Me and my team-mates learned a lot. We saw that we are good players but that other teams have good players as well. I think that in all our games we were the dominant team. That was the case throughout, from the first game to this game. In the semi-final, I thought we were the best, but the best team doesn't always win. We were just a little short on luck.