Euro 2012: Bert van Marwijk silent on Netherlands future after exit

Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk refused to answer questions about his future after the nation's disappointing Euro 2012 group stage exit.

Tipped as one of the pre-tournament favourites, the Dutch crashed out as a 2-1 loss against Portugal condemned them to a third Group B defeat.

"You can ask me all types of questions, but not about my future," the former Feyenoord boss said.

However, the 60-year-old took full responsibility for the Portuguese loss.

The beaten 2010 World Cup finalists knew they needed to beat Paulo Bento's side to stand any chance of reaching the last eight.

A surprise 1-0 defeat by Denmark followed by a 2-1 loss to Germany in the second round of group games left Van Marwijk's side facing an uphill battle to qualify for the knockout phase.

He responded by naming attacking pair Rafael van der Vaart and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar alongside Robin van Persie in his starting XI for the Kharkiv clash in a bold attacking move.

Van der Vaart's early curling strike gave the Dutch a glimmer of hope before Portugal skipper Cristiano Ronaldo's brilliant double broke their hearts.

"We knew we had to win by a two-goal margin so we had to take that risk and go forward," said Van Marwijk.

"Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I think we started quite well today and we scored after about 10 minutes.

"But you saw that when we concede a goal, the uncertainty remains. If we'd scored a second, we might have been more sure of ourselves, but we didn't take our chances.

"We're just disappointed. It wasn't a good game at all today. I'm responsible for that and I'm disappointed."

Tottenham's Van der Vaart candidly admitted his team had failed in Poland and Ukraine.

"We lost three times. We were bad and we don't deserve to go through," he said.

"We started quite well but we were playing against one of the better teams today."

Winger Arjen Robben suggested there were "issues" in the Netherlands squad.

He said: "Of course there were some internal issues but we will keep them indoors and, believe me, we tried everything - it's just not worked.

"The hunger in the team is there but we failed together. And I mean the technical staff, the players, the whole team.

"This is the harsh reality of the sporting world. We must all, therefore, look in the mirror."

Former Netherlands international Ronald de Boer, who won 67 international caps, told BBC Radio 5 live he felt Van Marwijk's squad paid the price for a lack of unity.

He said: "There were too many egos on the pitch, players who had great seasons, Van Persie, Huntelaar and Robben, and overall too many wanted to be the star of this tournament.

"Huntelaar and Van Persie are not only the top-scorers at their clubs, they are both top-scorers in the Premier League and the Bundesliga, but they're not playing well (for the Netherlands).

"Football is still a team sport. You have to do it together and we didn't see unity at this tournament."