'Carrying on isn't my decision'

"We came to do something important with important players, it's a pleasure to have coached them. We tried everything, we took risks. I accept my responsibility as coach. It's been a pleasure being their coach. We gave everything but it's very difficult to attack 11 players who just sit back. The sadness of the fans and the players, who are really down, is the only thing that matters to me," he explained in the mixed press zone.

"The little details... It's very difficult to attack 11 players who just sit back. The most important thing for me is the sadness of the fans which is the same as ours, the group are really down. We tried everything. The team was getting there but sometimes it's difficult to attack 11 players who are so defensive," he continued.

"The team has put its soul into everything since day 1, its difficult to attack for 120 minutes, we tried it every way, it was an incredible effort.

"The gusy are really down because we empathise with our fans. I'm proud to have coached a team like that. My players don't have anything to be ashamed of. If anything, blame me as coach. I take the blame. It is and has been a pleasure to coach these guys. Carrying on isn't my decision. That's the least important thing," he added.

Finally, Hierro underlined that: "I don't think we've been unable to create danger, we tried it everywhere. World Cups are very complicated, unless you get ahead early. We reacted well after the equaliser, we started the second half well... we minimised the number of errors, the transititions, the errors form our early games and on that front there are no regrets..."