Peixe praises Portugal, Gemmill applauds Scotland

"I'm very happy with the quality and attitude my players showed," said Portugal coach Emilio Peixe after Monday's 1-0 win against Switzerland ensured an early route through to the UEFA European Under-17 Championship semi-finals. Now favourites to join them are Scotland after their 1-0 defeat of Germany, with manager Scot Gemmill quick to praise his team for their "concentration and discipline".

Switzerland 0-1 Portugal
Yves Débonnaire, Switzerland coach
The performance was good in general. We started with a bit of fear, but then just as we were really getting into the game, we gave them a gift like we gave Germany a gift. We made technical mistakes in trying to play the ball around, which is not a bad thing to do, but you have to do it intelligently. You've got to do the right things defensively and it's a shame because the team were playing really well. We lacked a bit of confidence on the ball in the first half, but in the second half we did well.

There was this one moment in the game where there was no risk whatsoever as we had the ball, but we made three bad passes – one, two, three – and there you are, we've conceded. If you only look at that, then you'd say it wasn't a good performance, but we did actually play well. We're disappointed, but it's right that we're disappointed. You also learn from defeats and not only when you win.

Emilio Peixe, Portugal coach
We played well against a very strong, aggressive team with some very talented players. We played some football that was easy on the eye and thoroughly deserved the victory, but credit must go to Switzerland for the part they played. It's normal that Switzerland caused us problems because we're in the final tournament of a European competition. However, generally we were the better team and we created the better opportunities. Obviously no team in the world can completely stop the opposition threatening their goal, and we're no exception to that rule.

Now we're going to focus on helping the players recover, but we're going to approach the next game intending to win again, which is our philosophy and our objective – we're going to be true to ourselves and try to get another three points.

Germany 0-1 Scotland
Christian Wück, Germany coach
The disappointment is very big, among the players and the coaching team. It's a bitter but fair defeat. Over the whole game we had only three players who played to their full potential. All of the others did not get anywhere near the kind of football they are capable of. All I can say is that we didn't get our game going. It may be down to the way Scotland played, but we don't need to look any further than ourselves if we're trying to point the finger. Congratulations to Scotland, as they deserved it and gave it everything they could have.

We have a very, very small chance of staying in the competition, but right now that's not what we're thinking about – at the moment, the disappointment is just too great. We've got to ensure we lift the players up again and that we build them up again psychologically. We need them to be physically fresh.

Scotland celebrate their goal©Domenic Aquilina

Scot Gemmill, Scotland manager
I was confident the players would execute the game plan; we just needed the bounce of the ball. For players of such a young age to show such concentration and discipline is very pleasing. In the first game against Portugal, even though our game plan was good and the discipline was good and all the little details that we speak about were good, we knew we should have kept the ball a little bit better. That helps everybody do their jobs better and it was definitely noticeable today.

We've got to prepare for [our last game] in the same way. It's a bit of a cliche, but it's very difficult to play for a draw [against Switzerland]. We need to make sure that we're confident and approach the game properly, but, like I said, I've got great confidence in the mentality of the group.