Monday, June 26, 2006

FOUR sent-off as Portugal dump Holland

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Portugal did enough to see off Holland 1-0 in a bitter knockout clash last night which saw FOUR players sent-off.
Both teams finished the game with nine men after a game which equalled the World Cup record for bookings - 16 - and broke the record for red cards.

Deco and Costinha were dismissed for Portugal, while Khalid Boulahrouz and Gio van Bronkhorst saw red for Holland.
Maniche scored the only goal, firing into the top corner after 23 minutes.
Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari described his players as "heroic" after the match.
"In three-and-a-half years of coaching Portugal I've never ended a match with just nine players," said the coach.
"Fifa always talks about fairplay but tonight we saw several gestures that were anything but."
Portugal skipper Luis Figo said: "From the start of the tournament our great strength has resided in our unity and the great support of the whole country.
"It was an extremely difficult game. We were good in the first half. After we started playing with nine men it was a lot of work.
"The team should be congratulated for demonstrating such character."
Maniche, who also scored the match-winner in Portugal's Euro 2004 semi-final victory over the Dutch, echoed Figo's sentiments.
But he also blamed Russian referee Valentin Ivanov for overreacting to too many situations.
"We are a talented squad and we deserved the victory," said Maniche.
"I think we won because we are a great group, a group of talented players, a group of friends too - this is a tasty win for Portugal.
"The referee did not contribute to the spectacle. I don't think that it was such a violent match to merit so many sendings off."
Holland coach Marco van Basten remarked: "It is a pity the referee made a mess of this game.
"It was an open and very spectacular game but we could not score a goal.
"I think in the second half we only played 20 or 25 minutes of football."