'No shame' in France's penalty defeat

Francisco Rubio, France coach
We beat Germany on penalties in last year's semi-final and now they have beaten us this year. Moments like this can be cruel. It's like the toss of a coin and this year it fell for them but there is certainly no shame in this defeat.

We were a bit nervy at times during the match, but there is always going to be a bit of that in a final. We had chances during the game to score more than just one goal. I hoped we could build on our lead after we went one up but they came back, it finished a draw and I guess that was a fair result.

Our objective was to get to the final, then win it. We haven't won it but we have had a really good campaign getting here. We won all our games in qualifying. Just because we haven't won the European championship doesn't mean we can't win the World Cup, so we will now try our best for that.

Ghoutia Karchouni, France midfielder
I am sad to have lost. We could have won it but with penalties it is a bit of a lottery. Unfortunately we couldn't do it, but hopefully we will next time. When I went up to take my penalty, I wasn't thinking of anything else but scoring but their goalkeeper made a good save, so well done to her.

We weren't playing as calmly as we would have liked at the beginning, but eventually we were able to impose our game on them and we managed to score. With 25 minutes to go in this heat, it was going to be hard. Germany came at us and it was difficult to stop them.

The experience of being here at the tournament has been fabulous. You learn a lot, on the pitch and off it. Everyone should experience something like this. Although we haven't won the championship, at least we have qualified for the World Cup and we will now try to win that.