Emotions exhausted in Heerenveen

England manager Stuart Pearce said it was "probably the proudest moment of my career" after his side pushed the Netherlands all the way as a thrilling UEFA European Under-21 Championship semi-final ended with a UEFA competition record penalty shoot-out. England had led for almost an hour through Leroy Lita's 39th-minute opener before Maceo Rigters scored a dramatic bicycle-kick equaliser a minute from time. Yet the drama was far from over. With all England's substitutions used, injury forced Nedum Onuoha off in extra time while Steven Taylor limped through the additional 30 minutes before penalties ensued – 32 of them to be precise. The Netherlands eventually sealed a 13-12 victory which their coach Foppe de Haan admitted was "bad for the heart".

Stuart Pearce, England manager
The players are crestfallen. They've given their lot emotionally and physically and it was an incredible evening's football. It's probably the proudest moment of my career. At the moment I want a nice cappuccino and to go and cuddle some of the players in the dressing room. We have to congratulate the Dutch after putting in so much effort tonight. We were prepared for penalties though. We've studied the players, showing statistically which way they could go. The penalties I was involved in only went to five or six penalties, so we're going in the right direction. Credit to their goalkeeper, he got his hand to a couple, one more than ours. We've given a good account of ourselves, and I'm very proud of them all. As a young player you can only benefit from tournaments like this. We've got the nucleus of nine or ten players who can represent the U21s going into the next tournament in two years. It bodes well.

Foppe de Haan, Netherlands coach
A remarkable match. First half we didn't play well. There was no tempo. We always had a spare man in midfield and they scored. It was poor defending and then we had to do it. And we did it. We were happy in the last minute when Donk headed across for Maceo's goal although we were not good in extra time. We trained penalties a lot after a bad experience on penalties with the Netherlands U20s against Nigeria. It's our second time in the final – if you'd have told me we'd get there before the tournament, I'd have been very happy. Before the match we talked everything through so they knew what to do when we went to penalties. Royston Drenthe missed his first, but it was a good spot-kick and he then scored his second. Penalties are awful though. There is a lot of tension and you have to think positive all the time – it's bad for the heart. It was a real team effort. We played better last year so we have to work harder to win.