Uruguay coach Oscar Washington Tabarez was predictably but genuinely “proud”of his team after their 3-2 semi-final loss to the Netherlands.

He said: “If I had to choose a way to lose it would have been this way. We played on an equal footing with the other semi-finalists who are all powerhouses of Europe.”

And Tabarez has promised that his team “will prepare itself to fight to the death” in the third place play-off with Germany in Port Elizabeth.

Meanwhile striker Diego Forlan is still in line for the “Golden Boot” award to the tournament’s top scorer.

Forlan is on four goals, one behind the tournament’s leading scorers, Spain’s David Villa and Germany’s Miroslav Klose.

He was substituted in the closing stages of the semi-final and explained: “I had some tiredness in my thigh when I started the game and it was difficult.”

But the Athletico Madrid striker added: “I will be fit for Germany.”

Whatever the outcome La Celeste will be paraded through the streets of Uruguayan capital Montevideo on Monday before meeting the country’s president Jose Mujica and members of his government.

Mujica was quoted after the semi-final saying that “if we’d had five minutes longer we’d have won.”