Argetinian striker Gabriel Batistuta believes he and his team-mates have let their country down by failing to qualify for the knock out sages of the World Cup.

“It’s over and the pain is double,” he said. “I had dreamed of a different ending.

“We were looking forward to winning. We felt for the people of Argentina. It was very close and being unable to pay the debt to them makes us feel bad.”

He said the players knew they should have qualified – instead Sweden and England go through from the so-called ‘Group of Death’.

“I do not need to watch this match again to know that we could have made it though without problems from this group.”