"I still convince myself that we lost to Ukraine. The feeling that this defeat didn't happen," - Bosnian national team forward

Bosnia and Herzegovina striker Ermedin Demirovic spoke about his emotions from the defeat to Ukraine (1-2) in the semi-final of the play-off round of the Euro 2024 qualifying cycle.

"I was still gathering my strength to admit first to myself and then to everyone else that we failed, despite how much we wanted to succeed. All these days I had the feeling that this embarrassing defeat had not happened. Until I said it out loud. Unfortunately, it did happen, and in a very painful way.

We won't be going to the much coveted European Championships. For me it is especially difficult because this Euro will be held in Germany, the country where I play (for Augsburg). Both myself and everyone in our team gave everything they could in the match against Ukraine. But sometimes you need a little bit of luck, and we certainly did not have it on this day!

My thoughts alternate between sadness and despair, because I am sorry that we did not make our people happy, that we were not able to hold on to the victory and celebrate the success together with the fans. In all this despair, one thing consoles me: we have shown that we can, that we know what we want. And with the support of the fans, I believe we will succeed," Demirovic wrote on his Instagram page.