Turkey coach rues semi-final loss

Turkey coach Senol Gunes is disappointed even though his side exceeded expectations by reaching the last four.

However Gunes, who claimed after the second round win over Japan that they could win the tournament, insisted his team would continue to aim high.

After the 1-0 semi-final defeat to Brazil, Gunes said: ‘‘We came here to take part in the festival of football and make an impact.

‘‘We have achieved that and I am very proud of my players, who have done superbly.

‘‘My only regret is that we could not give the people of Turkey one more source of happiness.

‘‘We wanted to reach the top, but being one of the teams in the semi-final is still a good thing. Maybe we will get to the final next time.

‘‘We still have a long-term plan to win the World Cup. For now we have another match against South Korea and we could still finish as the third best team in the world.’’

Turkey goalkeeper Rustu Recber had kept his team in the game with some great saves in the first half, and the Europeans had a good spell towards the end as they looked to force the game into extra-time.

Gunes said: ‘‘Brazil were tired at the end but we could not get the equaliser.

‘‘In the first game we made too many mistakes and although we made less mistakes this time we still kept giving possession away.

‘‘From that, Brazil were able to attack and put us under pressure. We made errors and could not always do what we wanted.’’