FRANCE 98 – South Africa-Saudi Arabia – L. Radebe: “We would at least have liked to have won once”

Lucas RADEBE (19), captain

“At the start of the match we knew we had to get the three points for the win, and were counting on FRANCE to beat DENMARK. The French held their part of the bargain, we did not. But you cannot say that we lack experience, as the South African press has alleged. We’ve also had some difficulties adjusting to the temperature changes. The turning point of the match was the first penalty against us. I don’t want to comment on the referee’s decision, but in my opinion Sami AL-JABER (9) fell over on his own. Of course, I’m disappointed with this result, because even if we didn’t qualify for the next round, we would at least have liked to have won once. At the end of the day, it’s not all bad. We have after all participated in a World Cup and we will take home some great memories.”

“We played fairly well on the whole. We needed a good result. Today, I am very pleased with my team-mates. Our problem in this match was that we didn’t know the FRANCE-DENMARK result, which was being played at the same time. Knowing that FRANCE had won, could’ve given us more enthusiasm. I scored two goals, I was particularly pleased with the first which was pretty cool. The second was only a penalty. I don’t want to comment on the referee’s decisions that led to the Saudi penalties. We simply defended badly and played poorly at that point.”