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Portugal players take pride in final defeat

Bernardo Silva said he would "gladly" have swapped his eye-catching individual displays for victory in the final, with João Mário urging Portugal to take pride in defeat.

Portugal players take pride in final defeat
Portugal players take pride in final defeat ©UEFA.com

Bernardo Silva, Portugal midfielder
Maybe we should have done more to avoid this type of outcome. It is a big disappointment for all of us. Maybe we could have also had a little more luck. Personally, I am satisfied with my performance during the tournament and I am happy I've helped the team reach this final, but I would gladly change these performances for a win.

Paulo Oliveira, Portugal defender
It's always hard to lose and when you lose in the penalty shoot-out lottery it's even more cruel. But this is football and we have to keep our heads held high considering everything we have done up until today. We fought with all our strength; we have a fantastic team, an amazing group of players, but unfortunately we were not able to translate that into goals and into a victory. I am proud of all these players because I know we all gave our best.

João Mário, Portugal midfielder
We were tired, but that is not an excuse. It's natural we were tired after all these matches at the end of a long season, but that is also true for Sweden. We've had a great run, but today we were unlucky and we lost in the shoot-out. It was the only defeat we had during this campaign and it was on penalties.

We have to congratulate Sweden, but we have to be proud for what we've done. It is always very hard to lose like this, but we showed to the Portuguese people that they can be confident about the future, because we have some excellent young players.