17 June 2006, by Tom Kundert

Scolari: "We’ve made history"

Luiz Felipe Scolari extended his own personal World record to nine consecutive victories in World Cup finals with Portugal’s 2-0 triumph over Iran.

The Brazilian coach was overjoyed at the end of the match.

“This is a moment of great euphoria, but we know we have to show a lot of respect for our opponents. We’ve managed an historic victory that has put us into the next phase - it’s 40 years since Portugal got to the second phase of a World Cup.”

“We played a very good match from the technical point of view. Now we have to beat Mexico, and it’s an important game because it will decide who will finish first and second.”

“Do we want to avoid Argentina? We don’t want to avoid anybody. It’s not worth imagining that A or B are weaker than other teams. They’re all strong teams.”

“How far can we go? Other teams have better conditions than us in that they have a group of 23 players all of a spectacular level, while we have some difficulties and have to improvise from time to time.”

“But the squad is excellent, it’s marvellous”