GENEVA: Luiz Felipe Scolari has called on Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portugal team-mates to build on their impressive Euro 2008 opening win and seal their quarter-final place against the Czech Republic on Wednesday with a game to spare.
Second half goals from Pepe and Raul Meireles earned the 2004 finalists a deserved 2-0 victory over a spirited Turkey side to put them top of Group A on goal difference above the Czechs, 1-0 winners over co-hosts Switzerland.
Cool cat: Raul Meireles evades Turkey goalkeeper Volkan Demirel to score Portugal’s second goal in the 2-0 Group A win on Saturday. – AP
In 2004 Portugal were playing catch-up after a shock opening loss to gatecrashers Greece but judged on this evidence that setback taught them an invaluable lesson.
Scolari explained: “I know how important the opening match is. When you start by losing the risks and pressure are higher.
“We’re going to try to keep up this rhythm. We’ll be confident (against the Czech Republic) but not too confident.
“We’ll watch videos of the Czechs – they play in a different way to Turkey, let’s see if we can keep it up and keep playing this beautiful football as that way we’ll go through to the second round.
“We are halfway on the road to qualifying. If we get six points we should qualify, so 50% after one match is excellent. It gives us some breathing space.”
Portugal’s showing was all the more noteworthy as they went into Saturday’s game at the Stade de Geneve rocked by the last minute withdrawal of number one goalkeeper Quim.
His withdrawal opened the Euro 2008 door to Nuno Espirito Santo of Porto.
“Football has its own logic. A lot of people were telling me Nuno should be here. I asked my players, they told me ‘please name him, he’s spectacular’. Quim’s unhappiness is Nuno’s joy,” revealed Scolari.
The Brazilian handed the captain’s armband to Ronaldo when he took off striker Nuno Gomes late in the game, explaining he wanted to give the Manchester United star a boost.
“I wanted to motivate him, to give him a little extra oomph to help him forget his tiredness.
“I have five captains, I’m always talking to them. I called them all into my room after Quim’s injury and told them what I was going to do.”
Ronaldo’s assured display cast aside concerns that he may have become distracted by Real Madrid’s 75mil euro overtures to prise him from Old Trafford.
“I’m happy with what I did today, I’ll get better but to be at this stage already is positive,” the 23-year-old winger said.
“It was a great team victory, we deserved the win. If we continue like this we can go far at this Euro, but we have to stay calm, we haven’t won anything yet.”
And tackled on whether he’ll be suffering the wrath of United boss Alex Ferguson and moving to Madrid Ronaldo would only say: “I haven’t decided yet about my future.”
For Turkey coach Fatih Terim this opening defeat has left them with a must-win game over Switzerland, also on Wednesday.
“I was happy with parts of our play against Portugal but we’ll be better against the Swiss. It’s a very important game for us now. We’ve got two games left, so we’re not going to lose hope, we’ll keep working at it.” – AFP
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