Pachuca coach Enrique Meza said that Gamba Osaka deserved to beat his team and clinch Club World Cup third spot.
The CONCACAF champions lost to Gamba 1-0 in the third/fourth place game, thanks to a first half strike from Masato Yamazaki, who took his personal tally to two goals in the tournament.
"Gamba surely deserved their win," Meza said in a press conference attended by FilGoal.com after the game.
"They played very well today, and while we didn’t capitalize on the chances we got, they scored when they needed to."
Despite praising Gamba's performance, Meza stressed that his players gave their best against the Asian champions and throughout the whole tournament.
"I'm not satisfied with the result, but my team played as good as they can.
"We came early to Japan, prepared well for the competition and even played 120 in our first game."
After beating Ahli 4-2 in their World Cup opener, Los Tuzos suffered successive defeats at the hands of Liga de Quito and Gamba Osaka.
"It is very unfortunate that we lost two games despite putting on our best effort."
Finishing fourth resembles improvement for the Mexicans, who finished sixth in their first Club World Cup participation in 2007.