Oge Hareide: "Ukraine had a lot of ball possession but created little, if anything, in the way of penetration."

Iceland head coach Oge Hareide commented on his team's defeat to Ukraine (1:2) in the final of the Euro 2024 qualification play-offs.

"It's always a shame to lose at the end of the match. I hoped that there would be extra time to get a breather and gain strength. By then, we didn't have the energy to keep going at the same pace and it affected our ball control. Nevertheless, we had chances to equalise. But in football at this level the smallest details are important.

I'm very proud of the guys and the team as a whole. In these two playoff matches we took a step forward. The team fights well for the result. And the first half of today's game was probably the best we've shown in the last year. This is what we need to build the team on.

The Ukraine national team did not surprise us. We coped well with them today. They had a lot of ball possession, but created little, if anything. We made a serious mistake in the situation with the second missed goal - we didn't have enough of our players in the right area," Hareide said after the match on Icelandic TV.

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