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Ramos: Excuses are for losers

Cape Town - Spain defender Sergio Ramos has made no excuses for his side's early exit from the World Cup, and has backed the current crop of players to return the team to former glories.

The 2010 champions saw the defence of their title end in disappointing fashion on Wednesday as they lost 2-0 to Chile, following on from an embarrassing 5-1 defeat to the Netherlands in their opening match.

“Today it is easy to find excuses and point at people," Ramos is quoted as saying by AS.

“Excuses are for losers, this is one of those days when luck wasn’t with us.

“We want to say sorry to all Spaniards, in this moments of crisis that covers La Roja and we understand that you are disappointed and sad," he added.

“We understand, football doesn’t always give you what you want”.

The early exit marks the end of a long period of success for Spain in which they topped the world rankings for 65 out of the last 72 months, won the European Championships in 2008 and 2012 and claimed the 2010 World Cup title.

While many have stated that this could be the end of the golden generation, Ramos believes that the current squad has what it takes to get back to the top.

“I don’t want to say that because this is the same team that became champions of the world and Europe. We’ve made history in our country and you can’t forget that," he told FIFA.com.

“We have to pick ourselves up. It’s tough but we have to look to the future, be positive and try to take Spain back to where it belongs, which is the very top.”
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