Angola coach Luis Oliviera Goncalves said after the match that his players had made him proud despite bowing out of the World Cup.

    And Goncalves said: "We were not intelligent enough to defend our 1-0 lead but I'm still proud of my players."

    "Everyone involved in Angolan football and the people at home can be very proud of the players."

    Despite their tournament exit, Goncalves said his players had already exceeded many people's expectations.

    "People were saying we would let in a lot of goals but that didn't happen," he added.

    "Today's match was a little bit of bad football but in the end I think a draw was a fair result," he said.

    Angola would have hopes of advancement, though their fate was not entirely in their hands.

    With a win, they would match Mexico on four points although they trailed Mexico by three on goal difference before today's duel.

    That means Angola would have to beat Iran and Mexico would haveto lose to Portugal by a wide margin.

    Iran, which had already out of the group with two losses, were fighting for pride.

    Iran's coach Branko Ivankovic from Croatia was disappointed notto win. He insisted his players deserved to exit the World Cup with a victory.

    But Ivankovic said: "We dominated the 90 minutes and perhaps deserved a victory today."

    "The conditions were very hard but the players put their heart and soul into the match."

    The Croat manager bemoaned injury problems in the build-up to the squad's arrival in Germany but said they would "still be satisfied with their performance overall".