'We can be proud'

ByEurosport

Published 04/07/2006 at 22:07 GMT

Germany forward Miroslav Klose insisted his nation's footballing future was bright despite their semi-final exit. The tournament's top scorer failed to add to his five-goal haul before he was taken off and Italy swooped with a late, late double to dash ho

FOOTBALL 2006 World Cup Germany Germany-Italy Klose Zambrotta

Image credit: dpa

"I think we can still be proud of this team. We have a lot of young players and I think we have a future," said Klose.

"Both sides had shots on goal and chances to decide the match, but my compliments to the Italians. They played hard and scored a nice goal."

Italy forged in front with just over a minute of extra time remaining when left-back Fabio Grosso struck with Alessandro del Piero adding another with just seconds remaining.

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"We are hugely disappointed (but) you can only compliment the team, they're a young team," said coach Jurgen Klinsmann. "It's amazing the spirit they showed, the character. They made a whole country really proud.

"It's something very special to play a World Cup in your home country. We've a lot of young players with a lot of quality."

FINE STOPS

But things could have turned in Germany's favour had Lukas Podolski not seen Azzurri keeper Gigi Buffon make two fine stops before steering a header woefully wide when unmarked.

"We had good chances to score," said Germany left back Philipp Lahm. "It's bitter to lose so close to the end of the match. We didn't lack any freshness.

"We were still fit, everyone could still run. There were two very good teams out there. There weren't many chances. It was a balanced match. We had our chances, too.