Vienna - While German players were unanimous in their belief that Spain deserved their 1-0 victory in Sunday's Euro 2008 final in Vienna, they were equally unanimous that they had been hard done by by the referee.

The most outspoken was goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, who was playing in his last European Championship game.

"In my opinion the performance of the referee was very disappointing. He was a referee who did not really fancy us Germans," the former Arsenal custodian said.

"This was the third time I was unlucky with referees in a European cup final," he said, referring to the 2002 UEFA Cup final when Lehmann played for Borussia Dortmund and Dortmund defender Juergen Kohler was sent off after just 30 minutes.

In 2006 Lehmann himself was sent off in the first half of Arsenal's Champions League defeat against Barcelona.

"I spoke to the referee and he was very arrogant. In my opinion he was biased.

"He clearly saw a head butt from a Spanish player and he did not book him and he did not give him a red card and just before the end we had a good chance in the penalty area, but all of a sudden he gave a foul against us and even the Spanish players were surprised with that free kick."

Lehmann, however, said that the Spanish deserved to win. "Together with us they were the team in the last two, three years who were the most consistent."

Lehmann said that he was disappointed with the goal. "As a player you always say 'if I had done this or done that'. I am not the kind of person who blames others.

"If I had probably waited a bit longer or had done something different (Fernando) Torres would probably not have scored."

He said that he did not know whether he would continue playing for Germany. "I have not made my mind up, I will do that in a little while and then I will let my coaches know and my team-mates."

Other German players agreed with Lehmann's assessment of the referee. Striker Lukas Podolski said that he did not think the referee had a good game.

"There were certain decisions where he went against us that could have gone in our favour. But we must be honest, that is not why we lost the game. We did not do enough to win the European Championship."

Midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger said he felt the referee hadn't the best of games and could have given Germany a little bit more. "When you make mistakes at this level you get punished. The Spanish side are so good, so you can't afford to make any mistakes. We made too many that is why we lost." (dpa)