Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari shrugged off the chaos that marred Portugal’s 1-0 win over The Netherlands, officially the dirtiest match in World Cup history with an accumulated 20 yellow and red cards.
The Brazilian said while Deco should not have been one of the four players sent off, similar scenes were relatively common in South America.
”It was just like a game in the Libertadores Cup, which is very rough,” he said.
”I’m used to playing in South America. Especially against Argentinian teams, it’s war.”
Costinha, Deco, Khalid Boulahrouz and Giovanni van Bronckhorst all received their marching orders in a shambolic encounter, which Russian referee Valentin Ivanov struggled to control.
Luis Figo was also lucky to stay on the field after aiming a head butt at Mark van Bommel.
But Scolari was quick to defend his captain, pointing out that Figo was ”not Jesus Christ”.
”It’s much more correct than the Dutch player who would not give him the ball,” said the coach.
”Jesus Christ would have turned the other cheek but Figo is not Jesus Christ. I thought he was much more correct than the Dutch player.”
Scolari said Deco was unlucky to be sent off for bringing down John Heitinga and later throwing the ball away when the Dutch were awarded a free-kick.
”The cards were distributed at the decision of the referee but Deco was pushed and I don’t agree with this red card,” he said.
”The Dutch players had been pushing the Portuguese a lot and it was retribution.”
But he was delighted with the win, which looked in doubt when Portugal, 1-0 up after 23 minutes, went down to 10 men and Cristiano Ronaldo was subbed off injured before half-time.
”All I can think about today is the victory by a group that deserves to be valued by Portugal, not for what they have done at the World Cup so far but for what they did today [Sunday],” he said.
Scolari was an animated figure on the touchline and he said his antics gave an extra edge to his players.
”Sometimes they look over and they see me on the side and think that the whole bench is playing,” he said.
”Sometimes that gives them the extra yard that can win a game.”
Scolari was known for similar behaviour as a club manager in Brazil, leading to accusations of gamesmanship.
The stormy match extends Scolari’s record World Cup run to 11 consecutive wins, including seven in leading his native Brazil to the 2002 title.
It also sets up the Brazilian’s third quarterfinal clash with England in the last three major tournaments. He has won both encounters against Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men, with Brazil in 2002 and with Portugal at Euro 2004. — AFP
