Kerr: We lost to better team

Brian Kerr conceded that, on the day, his Republic of Ireland were beaten by a better team as Switzerland won 2-0 to end Irish hopes of making it to Euro 2004.

Ireland gave a below-par performance in their final Group Ten qualifier and lost to goals from Hakan Yakin after six minutes and Alexander Frei on the hour.

The result meant that the Swiss won the group, with Russia going into the play-offs and Ireland finishing third.

“We weren’t good enough,” admitted Republic boss Kerr.

“Some days you play teams who are better than you and they beat you, and you have to accept they were better, and they were better than us.

“They played well, they are a good team and they have had a very settled team throughout the competition and a lot of stability and experience.

“I knew it was going to be a difficult task but the early goal made it a huge task. We had no rhythm in the first 20 minutes but as the game went on we came into it quite well and made a reasonable number of chances for international football, but we didn’t take them. Then we didn’t have a very good second half.

“I thought we gave away poor goals, although Switzerland will probably say they were good goals.”