Scolari salutes 'wonderful' Greeks
Scolari salutes 'wonderful' Greeks
Luis Felipe Scolari was generous in defeat after his Portugal side fell at the last hurdle to surprise champions Greece in the Euro 2004 final.
Scolari, who coached Brazil to victory in the last World Cup, said Greece should be congratulated for their 1-0 triumph and not condemned for their defensive approach.
"Of course I'm not happy with the result," said Scolari. "Greece have a wonderful defence and they generally look to capitalise on their opponents mistakes."
He added: "We have been better in some parts of the game but they have scored, we didn't and I want to congratulate my colleague Otto Rehhagel and all the Greek team.
"I also want to say to the Portuguese people that this is not the end of the story for us, we are European vice-champions, we are going to keep working and we are going to win something in the future."
Angelos Charisteas scored the only goal, outjumping Jorge Andrade and Costinha to head in Angelis Basinas' corner. But it was their massed defence and man-marking that won the day - and Scolari said it was up to attacking sides to find the answer to those tactics.
He added: "I do not think Greece winning is a backwards step for football. It's up to the more offensive teams to find the way through this system. They play like this and it's up to us to combat it.
"Our players have been very well-marked but I don't see this as a failure by our team, more the quality of the Greek defenders and the wonderful job they have done."
There were a couple of Portuguese penalty claims - including one when Deco appeared to have his shirt pulled in the area - but they were turned down by referee Markus Merk.
Scolari said: "I think the referee has done mainly good work, he made some faults in the last 10 minutes but I would prefer to congratulate the Greek team. It's time football stops complaining about referees - so congratulations to both the referee and the Greek team."
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