Germany had no idea about the interpretation of the offside law that led to the first Dutch goal in their win over Italy being awarded, coach Joachim Loew said today.

UEFA backed the match officials, saying they had correctly awarded Ruud van Nistelrooy's opening goal yesterday as Christian Panucci was playing him onside, despite the fact the Italian defender was off the pitch at the time.

"I knew nothing about it," Loew told a news conference when asked about the goal, which appeared to many observers at the time to be clearly offside.

"The players talked about it and so did the coaches. We all wondered what you could do in a situation like this.

"We know that a player can't deliberately leave the field to avoid being offside but when he's knocked from the field, and it's unintentional, that's different. I was very surprised by the interpretation of the rule."

Van Nistelrooy and several other Dutch players looked surprised themselves when no flag went up in the game.

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was unhappy with the referee's ruling.

"I'm in total disagreement with the decision but then no one listens to me," Scolari told a Neuchatel news conference.

"The interpretation is made by he (the referee) who is there, I would have given offside because the player went out of the pitch involuntarily.

"But I'd like to say that Ruud van Nistelrooy is the most intelligent player in the world for taking advantage of that kind of situation."

Czech Republic coach Karel Brueckner said he watched the match with Miroslav Liba, a Czech referee who is also a UEFA match delegate.

"He is a great expert on soccer rules and he said the goal was perfectly legitimate," Brueckner told a news conference in Geneva. "So I will stick with his opinion that this goal was perfectly alright."