Portugal coach Paulo Bento has admitted his side were not good enough to progress to the round of 16 of the World Cup.

The Portuguese beat Ghana 2-1 in their final Group G game in Brasilia thanks to a John Boye own goal and a Cristiano Ronaldo strike, but exited the tournament because of an inferior goal difference to USA.

Asamoah Gyan had earlier levelled for GhanaPortugal could have leapfrogged USA into second place with a more convincing victory against Ghana, but did not capitalise on many of their chances.

“We created a lot of opportunities and we deserved to win by a bigger margin which would have given us a chance to qualify,” said Bento.

“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, which they lost 5-1.

But they bounced back to hold USA to a 2-2 draw.

Bento added: “In the second and third game we gave a different image of what we are worth than in our first.”