Rossi: Bad start determined our Euro fate

It became clear on Wednesday evening that due to unfavourable results in other groups, Hungary wouldn't finish as one of the four best third-placed team in the group stages of the European Championship in Germany this summer and therefore wouldn't reach the Round of 16. Head coach Rossi closed the European Championship campaign with a press conference in the national team's media centre in Weiler on Thursday morning before the delegation flew home.

"Of course, everyone's disappointed that after the tense wait of the last few days, it won't be possible to advance to the round of 16," Rossi began. "In the previous European Championship, it transpired within a few short minutes that we wouldn't beat Germany or progress out of the group and now we fallen short of the round of 16 on goal difference. Everyone is hurt by the elimination, but we have to look forward, even if it's very difficult to talk about the future right now. I won't criticise the players, because they did what they could, but a few of them weren't in top form at this European Championship, I'm confident that the squad members will be in better general condition in our next campaign. This European Championship was extremely stressful for me; I couldn't enjoy a single moment of it. The terrible start affected our tournament in an extraordinary way, although we came back in the rest of the tournament, the situation was basically determined by that first half against Switzerland. It's still difficult to talk about the future, because it takes a few days for these experiences to settle in, but I hope that the team will earn the right to participate in the next big tournaments. One of the great lessons of the European Championship is that the first match is the most important; a good start is extremely important - at least to avoid defeat - but unfortunately we couldn't score a point against Switzerland. We can still improve in many areas and we made mistakes in every part of the pitch, but so far the national team's success has been achieved through teamwork, and we can build on this after this too."