Coach Hope Powell remained upbeat, despite England women's Euro 2005 exit following a 1-0 defeat to Sweden. "A bit of sloppy defending cost us but we have a very young squad and they will bounce back," she said.
"I think all the federations watching know we will be a force to be reckoned with. We have an average age of 23 and this was great experience for them."
England captain Faye White added: "It is massively disappointing to go out. We were one goal away."
England conceded the only goal of the game only three minutes into the game at Ewood Park when they failed to deal with a corner and Anna Sjostrom scored.
White added: "It's a stupid goal to give away and such a soft goal to go out of the tournament on.
"We are proud of all the work and effort but disappointed at going out. We believed we could do it but we have to go on and take encouragement from our performances."
Sweden coach Marika Lyfors admitted that her team had been fortunate to clinch a win against England.
She said: "We were a little bit lucky because they put pressure on us for the whole game.
"I think they were battling all the time and they were playing quite tactically too.
"We knew that England would come at us with everything they had and they did that."
MMIX
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