U21 Euro 2007: Olympic Play-off Reaction

Italy coach Pierluigi Casiraghi was celebrating a job well done after his side secured the last European place at the 2008 Olympic Games with a 4-3 penalty shoot-out victory against Portugal in the European Under-21 Championship in Nijmegen.

Casiraghi's side survived the loss of Giuseppe Rossi, who collected his second booking of the game in the 74th minute, to take the play-off to penalties where they successfully converted all four of their kicks.

Portugal coach Jose Couceiro meanwhile, was left lamenting the injustice of football after Manuel Fernandes and Antunes failed to score in the shoot-out, but feels his side have a bright future.

Pierluigi Casiraghi (Italy coach): We played really well tonight, the players produced a very good performance. It wasn't easy, a great team like Portugal made it very difficult for us but we kept going and got our reward in the end. We expected a tight game and that's what we got, then we went down to ten men so it became even more difficult for us but the boys played very well indeed. Even if Portugal had the advantage of the extra man, we gave everything tonight and we made it in the end. We achieved our final objective.

Jose Couceiro (Portugal coach): Football isn't fair. We were the better team tonight, but missed a lot of crucial chances. We moved the ball well and played well in midfield but we were short up front without the suspended Hugo Almeida. It was not fair, we've done very well again tonight but we didn't get what we deserved. I expected us to control the game and we knew we had to take risks. Italy's main threat came from our mistakes in midfield. The only problem was that we didn't score; that's obviously why we lost. We're frustrated, we always expected more, but I'm very proud of what the players have achieved. This team is full of young players – eleven of them will still be eligible for the next European Championship. This is not the end, this is the start of something and the hard work will continue.

[U21 Euro 2007 Championship Finals Schedule]