Morten Olsen rued Japan's two free-kicks which played a part in knocking his side out of the World Cup
Denmark boss rues decisive free-kicks against Japan
Denmark manager Morten Olsen was left to rue Japan's two free-kicks which played a part in knocking his side out of the World Cup.
The Danes suffered a 3-1 loss against the Japanese when they needed to see off their Asian opponents in order to progress from Group E.
Olsen's side faced an uphill task when they conceded first-half dead-ball strikes from Keisuke Honda and Yasuhito Endo.
They did pull a goal back through Jon Dahl Tomasson but the damage was already done and Shinji Okazaki sealed a deserved Japan success.
Terrible situation
"The way the whole match progressed was decided on the two set-pieces when they scored the two goals," said Olsen.
"We knew which two players were going to take the free-kicks. We prepared, but it didn't help.
"We lost, so of course we are disappointed, especially when you have the ambition to progress to the next round.
"It was a terrible situation for us. We started off well actually, our positioning game was okay, and we were pretty much in control of the situation.
"But then around 12 minutes into the game we had the first real big chance. You don't score from every chance but that really makes a difference at this level.
"They scored from their chances, but we didn't do the same from ours, so it became an uphill struggle for sure."
