Paulo Bento: 'We were not inferior to Germany'

Portugal coach Paulo Bento believes that Germany were fortunate to win their Group B game at Euro 2012.

Mario Gomez's 78th minute header sealed a 1-0 win for Joachim Low's side in Lviv.

Bento said that his team had chances to level the scores but admitted that they were too wasteful in front of goal.

"We lost because we weren't effective [in front of goal]," said Bento. "We didn't lose because we were inferior to Germany.

"When Germany scored I thought we had the game under control, we were well-positioned defensively, they were a little lucky - it was a bad goal to concede for us.

"The players didn't lose their identity after the goal, they continued to play in our style and they were able to create dangerous openings - we could've evened the game, but that's the way it goes."

The 42-year-old believes that there is still hope for Portugal to qualify from the 'group of death', stating that they must recover physically ahead of their next match against Denmark.

"We have no reason to be emotionally weak after this game," Bento added. "We have quality, character, personality, we have to keep motivated and now recover well physically."

Bento took control of Portugal in 2010.