Paulo Bento: 'Portugal deserve to miss out on knockout stages'

Paulo Bento has admitted that Portugal did not deserve to earn a spot in the knockout stages of the World Cup following their early exit.

Four points was not enough for Portugal as they were beaten to second place in Group G by the USA, and Bento believes that there can be no complaints from within the camp.

"Of course the balance of our World Cup is negative," the 45-year-old told reporters after Thursday's 2-1 win over Ghana. "We didn't achieve our first aim which was to progress to the second round of the competition.

"We have what we deserve. The two teams that have gone through have done so on merit. Now we must analyse what went wrong and congratulate Germany and the United States for progressing."

Cristiano Ronaldo claimed that Portugal could be proud of their displays after finishing their campaign on a positive note.