Veron described hearing the final whistle as "the worst moment of my career".
"I am absolutely devastated, both myself and the team were hoping to give the World Cup as a present to the people of Argentina, but that is not now possible. Although we knew we were in a hard group, as a team, we all believed we could win the World Cup because we were all working so hard to achieve such a goal. But our dreams have now been trashed following this result, and so I would just like to apologise to the Argentinian people for our failure to qualify, and for our failure to bring the World Cup home.”
"This is an occasion of great sadness and disappointment for me, and I am extremely disillusioned after what has happened to us," lamented Argentina’s coach Bielsa.