Cristiano Ronaldo has lamented Portugal's failure to qualify from Group G following their elimination from the 2014 World Cup.
Portugal beat Ghana 2-1 in their final game of the tournament but goal difference counted against them following a 4-0 defeat to Germany in their opening game.
But Ronaldo, whose fitness was questioned throughout the campaign in Brazil, insists Portugal leave South America with their "heads held high".
He told a post-match news conference: "We tried to win the match, but could not finish all our opportunities.
"We were depending on the result of the German game. We deserved more and are leaving with our heads held high.
"We tried to do our best, but we couldn't do it."
Portugal coach Paulo Bento admitted his side were not good enough to progress to the round of 16 of the World Cup.
"We created a lot of opportunities and we deserved to win by a bigger margin which would have given us a chance to qualify," Bento told Portuguese newspaper Ojogo.
"Of course the balance of our World Cup is negative. We didn't achieve our first aim which was to progress to the second round of the competition. We have what we deserve.
"The two teams that have gone through have done so on merit. Now we must analyse what went wrong and congratulate Germany and the United States for progressing."
Bento did take some satisfaction from Portugal's response to their opening game nightmare against Germany.
"In the second and third game we gave a different image of what we are worth than in our first," he added. "As I said, the Germany game affected us, because we played in numerical inferiority, because it was a heavy defeat and also because a few players got injured."
