Ronaldinho was sent off soon after his goal for a clumsy challenge on Danny Mills.

Eriksson said: ‘‘I think we did rather well in the competition but I had hoped we would have done a bit better when it was 11 against 10.

‘‘We were tired and Brazil were very good at keeping the ball.

‘‘We could not keep the ball and then they had seven or eight players when they won it keeping it. They were better than us.

‘‘I had hoped to do better but I think we have learned a lot about many things.

‘‘We have a lot of young players in the squad who will be better by the time the European Championships come round.

‘‘They will be much better by then. It has been nice but it was disappointing today.

‘‘Once it was 2-1 we were not strong enough to come back after that.’’

Eriksson remained positive in spite of the defeat, believing his players will have learned from the experience and come back better for Euro 2004.

The Swede said: ‘‘I think we learned a lot about many things. There are a lot of young players in the squad and they will get much better.

‘‘It’s been very nice, but I am very disappointed today because they went 1-1 in the last minute of the first half and after they went 2-1 they weren’t strong enough to come back from that.’’

The Swede preferred to praise Brazil for the way they kept the ball following the sending off of Ronaldinho rather than point the finger at his own team.

Eriksson continued: ‘‘It was difficult, but I think we did rather well.

‘‘We should have done better when it went 10 against 11. But it was so late and we were very tired and Brazil are very good at keeping the ball. We could have done better and it’s a great pity.

‘‘We couldn’t keep the ball and they went forward with seven or eight players and when they won the ball they kept it.

‘‘They are better than us which is the difference. We could have done better but it wasn’t to be.’’