Norway coach Bjarne Berntsen expressed his disappointment after Norway's 0-3 loss to Germany in 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup China semi-final in Tianjin on Wednesday.

 

Norway's defender Trine Ronning scored an own goal three minutes before the break, giving the Germans 1-0 lead.

 

"I'm satisfied with the first half, but the own goal happened right just before the half-time," Berntsen told a post-match press conference.

 

"Germany played much better than us in the second half. We made mistakes in defense so Germany punished us," he added.

 

But Berntsen refused to blame Ronning, and instead he attributed his team's lackluster performance to fatigue.

 

"The own goal was just unlucky. That's a normal reaction. Ronning was the best player in our team as a defender," he said.

 

"I thought the main problem in the second half was that we gave the ball away too much and we lost the ball very easily which let Germany got easy chance to fight back.

 

"We rested two days before the quarter-final and only two days before semi-final. Our players were tired and it was my mistake to change little in the starting line.

 

"It was disappointed to lose the semi-final. After all, we still got chance to win a medal."

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2007)