Tymoshchuk: We deserved better

Anatoliy Tymoshchuk has voiced his disappointment with Ukraine’s 1-0 Group D loss to England on Tuesday.

A single Wayne Rooney goal after the interval proved to be decisive as the co-hosts missed a number of good chances throughout the encounter.

The defeat ended Ukraine’s participation at Euro 2012, but the Bayern Munich man believes his side fared well against England.

“When you look back on the game, I don’t think that we deserved to lose. We played a good, structured game. We had a lot of good chances to score,” Tymoshchuk said.

“Unfortunately, we conceded a goal and afterwards the game became much more difficult.

“However, after the goal we had two clear scoring chances. It is quite nice to think that we have played well, that we fought until the bitter end and that we wanted to win this match.”

The experienced midfielder then stressed featuring at the tournament has benefited Ukrainian football, even if they were unable to progress from the group stages.

“I believe that it has been very beneficial for us to participate in this tournament, and in our own country,” Tymoshchuk said.

“We could have played better and progressed from the group stage – if we had won, we would have advanced from the group as winners, since the French lost (against Sweden).

“However, this is how football is, we earned three precious points, and with that we have to end our campaign at this Euros.”