"Technical" Portugal impress Scolari
Armando Petit (centre) breaks past Kaka (l) and Gilberto Silva
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Wednesday, 07, Feb 2007 10:52
Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was pleased with his side's performance in beating the world's top-ranked side, Brazil, 2-0 in their international friendly on Tuesday night.
The match was played in front of a mixed crowd of Portuguese, Brazilian and English fans at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in north London and Scolari said he expected the English contingent to have been impressed with the "technical" style of football on show.
"It was a good technical game and I think the English fans enjoyed it," the Brazilian-born Portugal coach said.
"It was very much from the South American school of football, but Portugal are part of the South American school."
Manchester United's 22-year-old winger Cristiano Ronaldo captained the side for the first time, although Scolari revealed this was not his choice but a favour to the late vice president of the Portuguese FA, Carlos Silva, who died last weekend.
"On Saturday, Mr Silva asked me to make him captain as a gesture," Scolari explained.
"He thought the English fans would give him a difficult time and this was a response. He is too young to be captain, but Mr Silva asked me, and now he is no longer with us."
The game itself saw Portugal outplayed by Brazil for long periods, although the South Americans could not find the end product to take advantage of their dominance.
Two late goals from Simao Sabrosa and Ricardo Carvalho earned the World Cup semi-finalists a hard-fought win and Scolari said it would give his players "a lot of confidence" to have beaten the five-time World Cup winners, especially some of his less experienced squad members.
"It was a good chance to see some new players and observe how they reacted," he added.