[Thatslife]

Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari made three changes to the starting line-up he had already named for Wednesday's friendly match with Norway after the team suffered a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Spain on Saturday.

"There will be three changes, one because of an injury and the two others for technical reasons," he told a news conference.

"We do not want a good match to erase the bad impression created during the match with Spain. What we did with Spain cannot be erased."

"This is an opportunity to analyse and change attitudes, correct mistakes and play in a different way against Norway."

Scolari, who guided Brazil to their fifth World Cup title last year, said midfielder Maniche Ribeiro would not take part in the match in Oslo because of an injury.

Defenders Fernando Meira and Sergio Conceicao would also not take part in the match, he said.

In their place Scolari called up defenders Jorge Andrade and Nuno Frechaut as well as striker Luis Boa Morte.

The former Brazil coach is under pressure to produce an impressive performance against Norway to silence critics who have become increasingly vocal since Saturday's crushing defeat against eternal rivals Spain.

Disappointed football fans whistled and waved white handkerchiefs at the end of the friendly in the northern Portuguese city of Guimaraes on Saturday to show their displeasure with the squad's performance.

The loss to Spain has dominated the headlines of Portugal's three sports dailies.

"Disaster," screamed sports daily Record on Sunday while A Bola declared "Scolari's honeymoon period is over".

Portugal has a 4-2-2 record under Scolari, who was hired to help the squad overcome its disasterous first-round exit from last summer's Word Cup.

Scolari said he had already dealt with intense pressure from disappointed fans before, having endured the wrath of 170 million football fans in his native Brazil, and could handle the stress.

"I just have to do my job, conscious that I am doing my best," he said.

Scolari was strongly criticised in Brazil after he took over as national coach in 2001 following a string of poor results which were blamed on unpopular team choices and his confrontational style.

The critical voices were silenced after Brazil won the World Cup.