11 October 2006, by Marco Pereira

Poland 2-1 Portugal – Match Reaction

Luiz Filipe Scolari, Portugal coach:

“We committed childish errors, which normally does not happen. There was no ball movement, our coverage was poor and this was well taken advantage of by Poland.”

“Poland scored from their first opportunity and their second was the same. They relied on our errors. We, many times, collided with one another. Nothing went well and they took advantage in the best manner possible.”

“Poland played an excellent game. Their players had a fantastic attitude and were in enviable physical condition, playing football that was nice to see. We need to recover these points. We did not increase our points total tonight and now we have to make up for this loss. Things are more difficult now.”

Leo Beenhakker, Poland coach:

“I am unhappy that we missed so many opportunities to score, yet happy because we won against a big nation. Our victory was completely justified. We know that Portugal are strong with skilful players, but we prepared well for this game. To take Portugal out of the game we did not allow space in the midfield.”

“My players did an excellent job. We scored two goals in the first half and even had more chances to score. In the second half, Portugal became more offensive and started to press more, pushing us further back, but we could have hit them on the counter attack.”

“I think the result is short considering how many opportunities we had. Remember we played against one of the best teams in the world, so we have to be satisfied with the way we played. We are in the hunt for a qualification spot.”

Poland 2-1 Portugal - Match Report