Slovakia coach Francesco Calzona was philosophical after their Euro 2024 last-16 exit at the hands of England in Gelsenkirchen.
Ivan Schranz put Slovakia ahead with his third goal of the tournament after 25 minutes and they had many chances to add to their tally which they failed to find.
It left the game at bay until the fifth of six minutes of extra time at the end of the 90th minute, when Jude Bellingham curled a perfect header from Kyle Walker's long throw to put England level and send the game into extra time.
Harry Kane nodded the Euro 2020 hosts ahead 53 seconds into extra time and despite mounting pressure, Slovakia were unable to score an equaliser.
“I want to say again how proud I am of my team,” Calzona told uefa.com. “I told them they did a good job, they were good.
“We were on the same level as our opponents, we played attacking football and we got chances to score goals.
“Obviously they are all very disappointed because we were very close to winning, but this is football.
“We conceded a goal with a few seconds left, by a player (of Real Madrid). It is a matter of a few inches and you are punished. Maybe we could have defended it better, but it happened.”
After beating Belgium 1-0 in their Group E campaign, and finishing third on goals scored, Calzona almost added another scalp with the 45th-ranked side.th in the world.
“I feel proud, we played a good game against a world-class team and one of our favourites. We allowed England very little, we almost went ahead,” he said.
“Unfortunately we did not succeed. In overtime, we spent half the time in our opponents' half.”
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Shranz, whose third goal of the tournament makes him joint leader in the race for the golden boot, said the result will haunt the Slovakian team for years.
“My third goal in this tournament, but what will be said? It would have been great, great, but we lost at the last minute.
“There is nothing to be upset about, we will deal with it. But we will probably regret it for the rest of our lives. We may not get another chance like this to write history.”
Captain Milan Skriniar admitted: “It's hard to find words; we are all very sad. We were very close. England have a high quality, they pushed us and suddenly the Bellingham goal went in.
“It's sad that we got involved at the last minute. We were about 30 seconds away from victory. But I'm proud of the whole team. It was an amazing trip. We were ready to rewrite the history of Slovakia but, unfortunately, it went the other way. I hope we will come back strong.”
His teammate David Hancko agreed: “It's been a long time since I've been so sad about football.
“I know it's just a game, but we were so close to something special; something we dreamed of.
“We did everything possible to make it happen, but it ended up being stubborn. Bellingham's equalizer was a knife to the heart.”
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