8 July 2006

Portugal-Germany team news

Portugal coach Luis Filipe Scolari has confirmed that Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Costa will come into the side to replace the injured Miguel and suspended Ricardo Carvalho against Germany tonight.

The Brazilian added that he may make more changes for the match to decide 3rd and 4th place.

“I’ve got players with minor injuries and a lot of tiredness and I have to preserve them.”

“If we were playing the final we could submit them to a final sacrifice, but now I’ll have to think about playing them very carefully after a talk.”

Scolari, while admitting that the 3rd/4th place match is “more of a sacrifice than a pleasure” guaranteed that Portugal will do everything to win it.

“If we don’t win and we finish fourth, it’s also a great result. Finishing fourth out of 32 is a good result, but we will give everything to try and finish third. That is our aim.”