Hrubesch hails all-conquering Germany

Coach Horst Hrubesch described Germany as "the best in the tournament" after his side overcame the first-half dismissal of captain Florian Jungwirth to defeat Italy in the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final in Jablonec. Goals from Lars Bender, Richard Sukuta-Pasu and Timo Gebhart completed a rousing victory, and clinched Germany's first U19 title, despite Silvano Raggio's reply for Italy. The beaten coach Francesco Rocca was left to regret that his side had produced their most disappointing performance of the finals when it mattered most.

Horst Hrubesch, Germany coach
We were the best team in the tournament. We've won all five matches and deserved to win them all, so we can say that we were the best in the tournament. This was a worthy final, with the drama of the yellow and red cards and the late goals for the Italians, but my players really fought for the title. They really showed how much they wanted to win today, and that gives me a lot of pride. I'm very happy that my players and I – especially the players – have got this success. They've worked very hard throughout the tournament and before, and I want to thank them for their efforts.

This victory means a lot for German football. The German Football Association have done many things to improve youth development in Germany. All the Bundesliga clubs have special youth development centres and all those clubs have helped in the preparation for the tournament. The Bosman ruling means that more young players have got the chance to show what they can do in the Bundesliga, but it's important to have a title to show that your efforts are worth it. It would have been good even to finish as runners-up even in a tournament with as many strong team as this, but that wouldn't have counted for anything in a week or two. The title counts for more, especially as Germany hadn't won anything at youth level since the 1992 U16 title.

Francesco Rocca, Italy coach
I'm not happy of course, because we didn't play the way I wanted to – we just weren't really on our game tonight at any point. Germany were better than us, and that's a big regret – we played against ten players for a long time but we never really got into the match. Congratulations to Germany because they were better tonight but we could have played a lot better. We were better in all four of our games before tonight. We've had a good tournament, it's not ended how we wanted it to but during the tournament we've improved all the time. Of course, when you get to a final you want to win it and we haven't managed to do that. Maybe there was too much pressure on the players tonight and they weren't able to express themselves as they would have liked. This has been a high-quality tournament and that gives us hope for the future – it's been a good experience for the players.