Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira admitted that he was psychologically unprepared for the world champions' elimination in the World Cup quarter-finals by France.

Thierry Henry's second-half goal was sufficient to ensure the 1998 World Cup winners beat the team that succeeded them to the prize in 2002 and set up a semi-final with Portugal in Munich.

Parreira admitted that a quarter-final exit for a team that has played in the last three World Cup finals was a bitter pill to swallow.

"It was very difficult for us to accept this, we were not prepared for this," said Parreira.

"We did well at the start of the game but players like (Zinedine) Zidane and Henry took control as the game went on.

"We weren't expecting this and are sorry about the result and now it's time to reflect and think about how we will go forward."

Asked about his future, Parreira said: "There is no rush, I will go back to Brazil and there will be time to reflect.

"We must remember France are a very strong team with some very experienced players. We did our best and tried hard but we could not find the result we needed.

"Whenever you don't get to a final or don't win a trophy you are unhappy."

France coach Raymond Domenech again praised his team and reiterated what has been his mantra throughout the tournament - that only victory in the final on July 9 will satisfy him.

"To play Brazil you have to know how to defend because they know how to attack," said Domenech.

"We had to stake out the field and play, stay strong and battle.

"If we didn't do that we would die peacefully. They made us suffer a bit at the end when they had some chances so I would not say we dominated the match - but I would say that we controlled it in the terms of how to play a match against Brazil.

"Our objective remains the final on July 9 but first we have a tough match with Portugal.

"We can only really say we have succeeded if we win on July 9 so none of us are saying 'cockadoodle-doo'. But we are still in the tournament and that's a good thing.

"Maybe we started the tournament slowly but the teams who were playing well at the start of the tournament are now watching it on TV."