Granit Xhaka, Xherdan Shaqiri and Dan Ndoye are bitterly disappointed but also proud after the penalty shoot-out loss to England in the European Championship. A torn muscle fiber did not stop Xhaka from playing.
Granit Xhaka (captain): "It's brutally hard and difficult to find the right words. I don't know if you can say anything negative to any player or staff member. A defeat like this hurts twice as much because we showed a lot of good things today. Whether the defeat is fair or not is irrelevant. Unfortunately, you also need a bit of luck in penalty shoot-outs, and we didn't have that today. Manuel Akanji has nothing to blame himself for, he just had to score. I think the English adapted more to us today than the other way around. We had a very good tournament with and, above all, without the ball. I really wanted to play today, even though an MRI on Monday revealed a torn muscle fiber in my adductors. I had to bite, but the team needed me. I couldn't play long balls or take long shots, but otherwise I was fine."
Xherdan Shaqiri: "There's nothing more brutal than being knocked out on penalties. We fought and did everything we could to keep the fairytale going. We were close, but in the end the English had the better nerves. I don't think we can be blamed for anything, we can be proud of ourselves. We all saw the great euphoria. I think we made a lot of people proud and brought them joy."
Dan Ndoye: "It's tough and hard to accept. We were a really strong team and had the quality to go further in this tournament. Football can be cruel... I think we've created something that the team can build on in the future. Whether the tournament was a turning point for me, I don't know. I certainly gave my all to help the team."
