Tahiti manager Eddy Etaeta believes that his team can come away from the Confederations Cup with their heads held high despite Thursday's 10-0 defeat to Spain.

The national team boss believes that his side have "won over hearts in Brazil" and learned lessons from the experience.

"It's quite difficult when you get thrashed 10-0 but my players tried to really play football. They did their utmost to perform as well as possible - but at some point you've got to defend your goal better," he told reporters.

"We had overwhelming support from all the public in the Maracana. It's very very important to us. We wanted to reach the hearts of the Brazilian public and I think we've done that.

"We lost the match 10-0 but we won over hearts in Brazil. I want to say a big, big thank you to the Brazilian public."

Etaeta went on to say that he hopes his home country acknowledge the national football team in the same way that the Brazilian public have in the future.

"To be honest, we are more well known here in Brazil than at home in Tahiti. I hope that we get more recognition and support from our own population when we get back to Tahiti," he added.

"We realised it would be almost impossible to compete with such high level teams here but we are drawing a number of lessons from this tournament for the future."

Tahiti take on Uruguay in their final Group B match.

Written by
Mark Langshaw