By Philip O'Connor
VANCOUVER, July 2 (Reuters) - Algeria coach Vladimir Petkovic said his side had been made to pay heavily for their mistakes as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat by Switzerland on Thursday that saw them exit the World Cup in the round of 32.
Switzerland took the lead in the 10th minute when Breel Embolo scored following a quick counter-attack, and Dan Ndoye added a second immediately after the break.
"I can't necessarily say it's down to the defence or the defensive unit as a whole, but
certainly, in terms of the way we defended as a team, we have been made to pay very heavily for that," Petkovic told reporters.
"Every time we've made our first mistake, we've conceded a goal ... the opposition had three chances and they scored two of those. We had more opportunities than they did, but unfortunately that's the way it is."
The 62-year-old, who has had a long association with Swiss football and spent seven years in charge of the national team, said the step up at the World Cup was a big one for his side.
"We defended very well and we didn't concede a lot of goals heading into the World Cup, but here at the tournament, the level has been very high and so we needed to be a little bit neater and tidier and adapt a bit more to this level," he said.
Petkovic said he was happy with how his side had performed overall, and that they had simply lost to the better team.
"It was already a big success to be back at a competition like this after 12 years away. And making it through the group stage for only the second time in our history, I think that's also an excellent result," he said.
"Of course, we wanted to achieve a little bit more, but we weren't able to do so.
"We need to learn from our shortcomings that we displayed but we've also had a whole host of positive moments in the matches."
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
