No regrets for Serbia's Kirovski

Serbia goalkeeper Aleksandar Kirovski was in good spirits despite his team's UEFA European Under-19 Championship semi-final loss to Ukraine, admitting he will have fond memories of the tournament.

Tired legs
Aleksandar Stanojević's team surprised many by advancing to the last four as Group B winners ahead of past champions at this level France and Spain and emerging talents Turkey. The consequence of the team's early efforts, according to Kirovksi, was a drop in energy levels for the encounter with Ukraine which the hosts won 3-1. "We consider what we did here a success because we outlasted teams like Spain and Turkey," the FK Zemun goalkeeper told uefa.com. "We played quite well in the semi-final when you consider how tired we were and the strength of the Ukrainian team. We showed in the earlier games how well we could perform but perhaps we weren't at our best on Thursday night."

Making progress
A string of fine saves towards the end of Serbia's 1-1 draw with France and the 1-0 victory against Turkey helped Kirovski to enhance his reputation on the international scene and he now hopes to take his game to the next level. "We won't stop trying to improve and will look to be together again when we step up to the Under-21s," he explained. "I'm satisfied with my own performance here and the experience for me has been great as I was playing in the Serbian third division last year. We developed very good friendships and there was a great atmosphere within the team. I'm leaving with nice memories – especially that of our [2-1] victory against the four-time champions Spain – and if I ever have the opportunity to come back to Mariupol I will happily do so."

Goalkeeping talent
With his coach Stanojević declaring his admiration for the overall defensive displays of the teams competing at the European U19 Championship, Kirovski singled out some of the goalkeepers who have impressed him during the tournament. "I thought that France's Abdoulaye Keita did very well in the first game but unfortunately he got injured and had to leave early," he said. "I've also been impressed with the England goalkeeper, Jason Steele. David de Gea of Spain is normally top quality but perhaps he wasn't in his best form during this tournament."