Vogts proud of his players despite thrashing

Scotland manager Berti Vogts insisted he was proud of his players despite seeing them hammered 6-0 by The Netherlands.

Vogts said: "I told my boys this morning, 'I'm very proud of you' and after this, again I am very proud of my players. We must learn from this style of football. That was international quality. The Dutch were great."

Vogts revealed that the dressing-room was deathly quiet after the final whistle and added: "They are thinking about the lesson and that is good."

The German was also at pains to insist that the 6-0 scoreline was simply the result of an off-day by his players on an occasion when top-quality opposition lived up to their billing.

He said: "That is the best group we have. There is only a little bit of difference between the quality of The Netherlands and us, not more."

Two of the first-half goals were headers from free-kicks and another header followed after the break from a corner.

But Vogts refused to point the finger at either goalkeeper Robert Douglas or the defenders in front of him.

He said: "I don't blame any players. You can blame me, but please don't blame my players. The quality of the two teams is different, that's all."

The Vogts era had begun with a 5-0 friendly thrashing in France in March 2002 and Vogts was convinced that tonight's reverse had not been as damaging. He said: "Paris was worse. We made a lot of mistakes tonight and you cannot do that against the Dutch or other big nations. That is not allowed."

Vogts tipped the Dutch to make an impact in next summer's finals next summer.

The Netherlands manager Dick Advocaat admitted the performance was the one his team should have produced in the first leg. He said: "Today we saw the way the Dutch should have played last Saturday - pressing from the start. In the first half on Saturday the players did not do what I asked them to do, but tonight they did and that made all the difference."

"I made changes in personnel, but not in tactics and it is difficult to say whether the changes were the reason for the win.

"But I must say the newcomers in the team were excellent. Wesley Sneijder is able to move the game on very quickly and has a fantastic pass to the strikers."

Earlier in the week Advocaat had indicated he might not stay on as manager even if the Dutch qualified, but last night he said: "I am staying until the end."

Despite the victory, the Dutch players refused to speak to the media following reports that some of them had partied on arrival back in Amsterdam on Saturday night.

Advocaat said: "I can understand that. They all have families at home and had a lot of explaining to do there."