Luis Figo faces up to early World Cup exit (Allsport)

Portugal coach Antonio Oliveira paid tribute to his players even though they went out of the World Cup with a 1-0 defeat to South Korea.

The door was left open into the second round with the United States losing to Poland, but the Portuguese failed to grab their chance as they finished the match with nine men.

Joao Pinto and Beto were both sent off before Park Ji-Sung ensured the co-hosts went through as group winners.

"I have to congratulate my players because they did everything possible tonight to score and lead us into the next round," said Oliveira.

"For these players it is a great achievement to be at the World Cup and it was good experience for them.

"The world has not finished today just because we have lost.

"It is a huge disappointment but we will get up tomorrow and it will be another day."

Portugal piled the pressure on at the end but could not grab the equaliser that would have been enough to see them through.

"Sometimes you think it is one of those things," he said. "Sometimes things just go against you."

Oliveira bit his lip when asked about the two dismissals.

"At this moment it makes no sense to make a comment about the referee," he said.

"He took those decisions, we do not agree with them, but we should not make any further comment."

Meanwhile, Korea coach Guus Hiddink admitted the scale of his side's achievement in making the last 16 has taken even him by surprise.

"I think we underestimated what it would mean to the people of Korea," said Hiddink, who guided his native Holland to the semi-finals of France 98.

"I am a coach of great experience but it gave me a bit of a surprise.

"When you see the world-class players that they (Portugal) have and we were able to control the game at times then that gives me great satisfaction.

"It shows how much we have improved over the past couple of months.

"We came from nothing many years ago and a lot of people did not have confidence in us, but I believed in these players.

"You have to remember that they do not play in the big leagues but they still have the ability to learn."

He added: "I knew we could have got through with a draw but that is not the attitude to have.

"So we were looking for the goal and when it came, it was a beautiful goal."

Portguese star Lusi Figo is anxious to put the disastrous campaign behind him.

He said: "The people who saw the game will perceive that with a bit of luck things would have been very different.

"To play with 10 players is difficult and with nine even more complicated, but the team never stopped trying and could we could have benefited with some luck.

"When we don't reach the aims that we had, it is obviously a disappointment, but in a way we did everything that was in our reach to try and get to the second round.

"The entire group is sad, but football does not end here because our careers continue and we have to try and improve in the next competitions."