Brazil players apologised to fans on Saturday night after another hugely disappointing World Cup performance in the third-place play-off match, which they lost 3-0 to the Netherlands in Brasilian.
"I don't think we deserved for it to end like this," captain Thiago Silva said in a televised interview after he hauled down Arjen Robben in the second minute to concede a penalty from which they never recovered.
“We need to apologise to the fans, they booed us at the end, which is normal, they have feelings too. It’s very tough.”
Midfielder Oscar looked totally deflated after the defeat, which came just four days after Brazil were crushed 7-1 by Germany in the semi-finals.
“What can you say. We came here hoping to win third place but we didn’t, it wasn’t our day,” Oscar said. “We lost, there’s nothing to say. We lost a goal in two, three minutes and we were chasing the game. We are all very sad, the people are very sad, but we tried and we tried till the end.”
Robin van Persie scored the first from the spot after Silva was lucky to not receive a red card for his early foul on Robben, but unlucky to have conceded a penalty having dragged the Dutchman back outside the box.
Daley Blind added a second just 13 minutes later when he was gifted the ball in the box by a weak defensive header from David Luiz and Georginio Wijnaldum rounded it off with a third in stoppage time.
Manager Luiz Felip Scolari refused to discuss his future after the game, only to say that he would leave the decision up to his employers.
Asked what the future held, he repied: "That has to be decided by the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation. We agreed before this tournament that we would give our positions at the end of the World Cup.
“I will finish my report and the president and the board will analyse it and do as they wish.”
“Losing 7-1 was the worst result in history but I have to see the positive side of things,” Scolari added. “In 2006 we didn’t finish in the final four and neither did we in 2010. In a year-and-a-half we have reached the last four of the World Cup and we have won the Confederations Cup.
“We have to be optimistic. Today I don’t think it was a bad match. There is nothing I can criticise the players for. We played this match reasonably well. The players leave with my trust and happiness. If we continue the work then the path is open for a team that will be much better for 2018.”
