Uruguay head coach Oscar Tabarez admitted he was proud of his players after they were beaten 3-2 by Holland in the World Cup semi-finals on Tuesday night.

The South Americans managed to equalise through Diego Forlan following Dutch captain Giovani van Bronckhorst's scorcher to open the scoring but the Oranje scored twice in quick succession via Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben to essentially secure the match.

A late Maxi Pereira goal gave the Uruguayans some hope but time was not on their side an although they met their demise in the final four, Tabarez was pleased with the overall performance of his charges.

"It was a match worthy of the World Cup semi-finals. I'm proud of my players. We're disappointed, but we've shown everyone who wrote us off beforehand that we're not very far off the top," he said.

"We gave it our best shot, but it wasn't quite enough. I'm still completely satisfied with my team. They reacted well to going a goal down, they fought back and equalised, and they battled right to the end. I can't ask for more than that, nor can the players, and nor can our country. It's the right result and we accept it. If I had the option of choosing how to lose a match, it would be pretty close to what happened today."