Portugal's players admitted they were disappointed not to win their Euro 2016 opener against Iceland tonight, but insisted nothing was lost and they would be giving their all to beat Austria in Paris on Saturday night.
"We lacked some aggression in the second half," José Fonte told PortuGOAL, recognising that Austria would be a tough hurdle to overcome, but added "we'll be ready for it."
Vieirinha admitted he was at fault for the Iceland goal but said the team would cut out mistakes next time out, while Ricardo Carvalho simply stated: "If you don't win your first game, it's important to win your second."
PortuGOAL: What are your thoughts on the game?
José Fonte: "Obviously we're disappointed we didn't get the three points. I thought we started well, we were in control. We created a chance for Ronaldo, a chance for Nani, there was a good save from their goalkeeper, so after the goal we did have opportunities to get a second, possibly a third, but when you don't score and the result is only 1-0 you always run the risk of conceding and being under pressure.
"It looked to me like we started the second half not so aggressively. We should have been more aggressive. That's something we need to put right. And we ended up conceding from a long ball, which was their main way of playing.
"But after the (equalizing) goal we kept trying. You can't fault the players for not working hard, givng everything. We had a great spirit, a great attitude. Of course we are disappointed but we need to take the positives, analyse where we were not so good, and put it right the next game. We need to focus now on Austria and try and win that one."
PortuGOAL: Do you think the Austria defeat is a good result for Portugal? It will force them to come at Portugal and maybe open up more space for you...
José Fonte: "Possibly, but they will want to win as well. They have to win after their result today. It will be an extremely tough game, they have good players, they won nine games in their qualification group so we know their strength, we know it's going to be a tough game but we'll be ready for it."
PortuGOAL: It certainly wasn't the result you wanted, but Portugal's hopes are intact of having a good tournament?
Ricardo Carvalho: "We did enough to win, but we ended up penalised because of Iceland's goal, but that's football. We've got to lift up our heads and give our all to make sure we win. If you don't win your first game, it's important to win your second."
PortuGOAL: For sure it wasn't the result you wanted, but Portugal played well and were a little unlucky not to win...
Vieirinha: "Yes, we played well, we had opportunities to score more than one goal. Iceland scored from their only chance. It was a lack of concentration, in this case by myself. Now we have to focus on our next game against Austria. Everyone expected Portugal to win this game. We did too. We did everything, or almost everything well to get the right result. It wasn't our day. Now we have to work hard and play against Austria like we played today, and see if we have a little more luck and score more goals."
PortuGOAL: Will the fact Austria lost help Portugal as they'll have to come out and attack Portugal and the Seleção usually plays well in that situation?
Vieirinha: "Austria certainly weren't expecting to lose. Both teams will be going for the win. We have to make fewer mistakes against Austria if we want to win, qualify from the group and go to the next phase."
