4 June 2006, by Tom Kundert

Simao double sends Portugal to Germany in good heart

Luxembourg 0-3 Portugal

Portugal won their final warm-up match 3-0 against Luxembourg in Metz, France, last night. After a poor first half, two goals from Simao and an excellent Figo strike gave Portugal a comfortable victory to send the squad to Germany in good heart.

Portugal began the match with exactly the same team that faced Greece in the final of the European Championship two years ago, apart from Fernando Meira replacing the injured Jorge Andrade.

An insipid first half was notable only for a bad reaction by Cristiano Ronaldo to a nasty foul, leading to a yellow card. It was the second time in two matches that the Manchester United winger has shown a lack of discipline. On both occasions only the fact that the matches were friendlies saved him from taking an early bath.

Substitutes shine

At the interval Scolari replaced Deco, Costinha and Pauleta with Postiga, Petit and Simao, which infused Portugal with more energy as the players introduced looked to show the manager that they deserve a place in the team in Germany.

Seconds into the second half, Postiga produced a rasping shot on the edge of the area that goalkeeper Joubert could only push into the air, and the unmarked Simao was on hand to head the rebound into the net.

Simao scored his second on 74 minutes, converting a penalty awarded when Figo was upended in the box.

Ten minutes later, Portugal’s best player, Figo, expertly brought down a 50-metre ball from Ricardo Carvalho and guided the ball past Joubert into the net.

The squad now flies to their base in Germany as the countdown starts to their World Cup opener against Angola on 11 June.


Luxembourg:
Joubert, Leweck, Hoffman, Reiter, Peters, Strasser, Joachim, Carlos Ferreira, Remy, Mutsch, Schnell
Yellow Cards: Strasser (33), Peters (42), Federspeil (83)

Portugal:
Ricardo, Miguel, Fernando Meira (Ricardo Costa, 59), Ricardo Carvalho, Nuno Valente, Costinha (Petit, 45), Maniche (Tiago, 67), Figo, Deco (Simao, 45), Cristiano Ronaldo (Hugo Viana, 70), Pauleta (Helder Postiga, 45)
Yellow Card: Cristiano Ronaldo (33)

Goals:
[0-1] Simao, 45
[0-2] Simao, 73
[0-3] Figo, 84