Finland coach Michael Kald sounded like a man who had prepared his post-match speech, after seeing his team lose to Germany, days ago. "I'm proud of the players," he said. "We have made a great success of this tournament, we have improved and we have to learn from this situations.
"This is our first time in a tournament and we reached the semi-finals so we can't be disappointed."
Indeed, and when you come up against Germany, whose three early goals killed off Finland's challenge even with Minna Mustonen's quick reply, there's really no room for disappoinment.
Asked what he thought was the difference between the Germans and the rest of Europe, Kald replied: "They are very physical, every player on the pitch can kick the ball 70m.
"They are very quick, they can break quickly, and they get back to defend very quickly – you only have a second or two to do something, otherwise they are all back and there is no space left."
His captain Anne Makinen agreed that Germany are still a class apart at the moment. "There are no weak links in the German team," she said. "They could all be in the team of the tournament, that's pretty hard to match.
"It's like playing against men sometimes, they are so powerful."
It wasn't hormones Kald suggested to match them though, just good old fashioned hard work.
"We all have to work harder, train harder," he said. "What we do in Finland is good, but it's clearly not enough, the girls can see that for themselves now that we have played them."
German coach Tina Theune-Meyer wasn't about to let her side have a rest, mind, despite them getting the job done tonight inside 12 minutes.
"I was happy with the performance for the first 15 minutes, but then it took us a long time to calm down, and we didn't really do anything until the fourth goal," she said.
"I was unhappy with conceding a goal, I didn't want to do that in this tournament, but I'm sure once I have slept on it I will be pleased with the victory.
"We want this gold medal, we always want to be on top." On the evidence we've seen from her team so far in this tournament, they will be getting exactly what they want.
