Euro 2012 news: Bert van Marwijk slams 'penalty' decision

Dejected: Bert van Marwijk

Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk voiced his frustrations after referee Damir Skomina failed to award a penalty in the closing stages of Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Denmark.

A late handball by defender Lars Jacobsen went unpunished by the Slovenian match official, as Netherlands' hopes of qualifying from Group B were dealt a significant blow in Kharkiv.

"It is such a clear penalty, and then you likely get a draw," Van Marwijk bemoaned.

However, the Dutch coach appreciated that wastefulness in front of goal also played a key role in the surprise defeat. Netherlands had a total of 28 shots on goal but missed a host of gilt-edged opportunities to score.

One of the most wasteful players was Arsenal's Robin van Persie, who only managed to get two of his eight attempts at goal on target, but Van Marwijk refused to pin the blame on the Premier League's Player of the Season.

"It was not only Van Persie who missed chances, it's not about one player," he added. "Four, five or six other players missed chances too, plus the referee had a chance to give us a penalty and didn't.

"The ball just didn't want to go in. We were better than our opponents but you still have to score that goal and when there's a penalty that doesn't go in your favour there's nothing you can do."

Dutch captain Mark van Bommel said he was "speechless" with the final result, adding that Denmark's Michael Krohn-Dehli scored with the team's only notable attack – an assessment which Danish coach Morten Olsen would have strongly disagreed with.

"You saw a Danish team who overall were the better team and also, over the last 10 minutes, were better physically than the Dutch team - that was very important," the long-serving Denmark boss commented.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo believes his Portugal side did not deserve to lose 1-0 to Germany on Saturday evening.

The world's most expensive player was powerless to prevent the Germans from securing the points, thanks to Mario Gomez's second-half header, and felt Portugal deserved "a win or a draw".

"Anyone who watched the match will have seen that we were better than Germany, and the chances speak for themselves," he told Uefa.com. "But now we have to pick ourselves up and continue. We have to take as an example 2004, when we also started with a defeat, but then reached the final."

Rob Swan - follow me on Twitter

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