Honest Magnin accepts the blame

Frustration
After answering journalists' questions for 20 minutes with his usual tact, the VfB Stuttgart left-back was asked to identify which young attacking talents were coming through in his country. "I have been playing in Germany for eight years now, thus I don't really know the young forwards in my country any more," Magnin said, before breaking into a smile. "That was a very good, diplomatic answer, wasn't it?"

'Nothing to celebrate'
A minute later, shortly before the time for interviews was up, the mask was off. Asked by euro2008.com, if it was too simple to blame bad luck for the 1-0 defeat by the Czech Republic and last-gasp 2-1 loss to Turkey, Magnin admitted: "Yes. It is too easy. It makes me sick when I always hear, 'Well played, but you were unfortunate to lose'. We don't have to talk things up. We lost, we did not reach our goal, there is nothing to celebrate." He added: "I simply cannot put up with this, 'Well played and lost' any more. We lost. We are not here to play well, but to win. We were criticised in friendlies, which we could not understand, and now we have lost and there's praise. Of course, I am having difficulties with that."

Mistakes
Now the 29-year-old was speaking his mind. "It is too easy to say we played well," Magnin added. "I have said it myself: If we lose the two games, then something was missing." But what exactly was lacking? "Small things were missing. When at key moments you have the opportunity to score, then you simply have to do so! Simple as that. Or in the second half [against Turkey], where you are constantly under pressure, you absolutely have to be capable of putting together more than three passes in a row. Those are details, but they are decisive at this level. Our attitude was outstanding, we fought for each other and defended together, but when you are constantly under pressure, small mistakes happen which lead to the concession of goals."

Vow to fans
Having been shaken off by Turkey substitute Semih Şentürk before he equalised on Wednesday, Magnin is not excluding himself from blame. "Of course I made mistakes myself," Magnin said. "I am not pleased. But I think that I am more to blame for the goal against the Czech Republic than the one against Turkey. It's always difficult for a defender when racing into the area for a cross." Despite all that, Magnin is vowing to put on a show in Sunday's valedictory fixture against group winners Portugal in Basel, the venue for the two Swiss defeats. "I think that it will be difficult for us, to motivate ourselves again after such a defeat," Magnin said. "But there will be thousands of fans in the stadium who went through a lot of trouble to get a ticket. We will be playing for them."