José María Olazábal praised the determination of his Continental Europe side after seeing them win the Seve Trophy by Golf+ for the first time in seven attempts at Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche.
Francesco Molinari won the final singles game on a dramatic last day in France to secure a 15-13 victory over Great Britain & Ireland.
“They were determined to win,” said Olazábal, who also captained Europe to Ryder Cup success with Molinari in the anchor role.
“Sometimes the determination helps and I think it did this time. I'm very proud; a few guys really played extraordinarily well all along the week.
“You get drama, you get the attention and great matches were played. We saw an exciting match in the Seve Trophy in the last match of the last day and it doesn't get any better than that.”
Olazábal revealed that he had told his side not to panic ahead of the final day, after they saw their lead wiped out in Saturday afternoon’s foursomes.
“I told them it was just a bad afternoon session,” he added. “We started from scratch and today was a big day.
“We needed five points and a half, and we knew we had to play really hard, and the start was very important, Gonzalo and Nico gave us a point and a half that was very important, and some players did very, very well.”
Great Britain & Ireland captain Sam Torrance was full of praise for both his own players and the opposition after seeing his side fall just short.
“It went a bit difficult midway through the afternoon, but they fought back,” said the Scot. “Chris Wood holed a fantastic putt on 15 to keep it going and give us hope, and a fantastic birdie by Francesco Molinari on 16 to finish it off.
“Well done, Europe - golf was the winner. That was a great event. The taste of defeat is never great, but we will learn from it and come back strong.
“They were really strong and the Europeans were just that little bit stronger.
“Obviously disappointing not to win but I couldn't have asked for more from my team. They were fantastic all week, in every aspect.”
