The Juventus defender was unable to contain his frustration after the Swiss' narrow loss and feels they deserved better

Stephan Lichsteiner has voiced his disappointment with Switzerland's World Cup exit in the wake of their 1-0 round of 16 defeat after extra time against Argentina on Tuesday, but feels Ottmar Hitzfeld's men should be proud of their performance irrespective of the result.

The Swiss came close to one of the biggest upsets of the tournament, but eventually bowed out following Angel Di Maria's 118th-minute winner.

Lichtsteiner played an unfortunate role in his side's loss as he lost possession in midfield in the build-up to the Real Madrid man's goal, and Lionel Messi helped to punish them.

"We worked a lot on how we would play against Messi. We knew we had to man-mark him well, and we did it well. We were up against one of the best players in the history of football and another five or six top class players on top of that," Lichtsteiner told reporters.

"In the end we made one mistake too many."

Switzerland could have grabbed an equaliser almost immediately, but Blerim Dzemaili hit the post and then the ball cannoned away, but the right-back says his side cannot linger on such moments.

“This is the craziness of football! It hit the post, then it came back and he couldn’t score. But such is the craziness of football.

"I don’t know about destiny, but we lost on the little details. We didn’t do a lot wrong at the back, but they won the match.

"This loss is very bitter. I can only give the team a compliment.

"We are incredibly disappointed, but let's not forget that we put in a great performance. We should be proud of ourselves."

Switzerland had qualified for the knockout stages after a 2-1 win over Ecuador, a 5-2 loss versus France and a 3-0 victory over Honduras.