Bruno Fernandes believes Portugal had the quality to win the World Cup and rued their "missed opportunity" to lift the trophy for the first time.

Portugal were among the pre-tournament favourites to lift the trophy, but their campaign ended in the last 16 after a 1-0 defeat to Spain.

Mikel Merino scored in stoppage time to inflict the loss on Portugal, who have now lost/been eliminated from six of their last eight World Cup knockout-stage matches.

They had lost just one of their first five in the competition.

And Fernandes admitted that Portugal missed their chance to make history after bowing out early.

"There's no point in talking about it now because we're out of the World Cup, but it was a missed opportunity," Fernandes said.

"Every opportunity is a missed one because when we reach a World Cup, everyone wants to win. We're no different – it's been the same in every World Cup Portugal has participated in – but it was a missed opportunity.

"I know Portugal has never won the World Cup and that we always set our expectations very high, but I think I can say with some certainty that this team had the quality to win the World Cup.

"We have a great team. I'm sure we had the quality to go further."

Portugal did not manage a single shot on target in the second half against Spain, while two of their five shots after the interval overall came in stoppage time.

They finished with 10 attempts, worth 0.6 expected goals (xG), and did hit the woodwork, but they struggled to truly test Spain.

"Obviously, we were eliminated by a great team – we lost to one of the favourites to win the World Cup, just as we were ourselves," Fernandes added.

"The overall assessment can't be positive – it would only be if we'd made it to the end, and we didn't.

"Perhaps we weren't able to get the best out of everyone in the best way possible, and we ended up being eliminated very early on.

"But we shouldn't lose faith. We lost to one of the top contenders, and we need to look ahead with a different mindset. I think we have to be more true to ourselves, tap into what we have inside, try to play more in our own style and our own way, and find a way to make other teams respect us more."