Nioplias praises Greek heart

An 89th-minute winning goal by Andreas Lampropoulos earned ten-man Greece a place in Friday's UEFA European Under-19 Championship final courtesy of a 3-2 victory against Germany, a result that their coach Nikolaos Nioplias put down to "heart and soul" while his German counterpart Frank Engel bemoaned their late lapse in defence. uefa.com spoke to both coaches.

Frank Engel, Germany coach
If only I knew exactly why we lost. Everything looked fine, but in the dying seconds we made an error in marking at a dead ball situation. Had we gone into extra time, I am sure we would have pushed hard once again, especially with the extra man. We did not find our rhythm as we wanted to and the Greeks were strong physically and well-organised in defence. Because of this we did not manage to create enough clear-cut chances and we missed most of the ones we had. I am angry that we conceded three such easy goals. Particularly for a team that has not conceded many goals for months, even years, we allowed too many goals during this tournament.

Nikolaos Nioplias, Greece coach
We did not start well and the first 45 minutes was not good enough. Tactically we had to make changes because Germany started with a different system than I expected and the two goals we conceded were down to our own mistakes. But we gained confidence the longer the match went on. We are now unbeaten in 12 matches and tonight we triumphed thanks to Greek heart and soul - this is a big result for Greek football. Looking ahead, who does not want to win the title? We have to concentrate again, recuperate physically and mentally from tonight's match. We will have to regain our energy, but I can assure you, we will be ready for the final.