Source: CCTV.com

06-19-2008 13:20

Special Report:   2008 European Championships

Members of Portugal's team don't consider themselves favourites to win Thursday's quarter-final against Germany, just because they had an easier time of it in the group stages.

The Portuguese squad underwent training on Wednesday ahead of the all-important match against Germany. Portugal's had a good tournament so far - beating Turkey and the Czech Republic with ease to advance to the last eight. Germany beat Portugal 3-1 in the third-place match at the World Cup in the teams' last encounter two years ago. Germany technical director Oliver Bierhoff is well aware that Portugal will be hard to beat - especially with star player Cristiano Ronaldo on their team.

Oliver Bierhoff, Germany Technical Director said "We have a special plan but I won't tell you. It is difficult. I think that he is probably the best player in the world and you can never stop him for ninety minutes. So is very important that the defenders and midfielders stay close together. When he has the ball, we need to pay attention. But the problem with Portugal is that they have also other players that at any moment can decide a game. So I think it will be very important that we as group stay very close together because by confronting him with only one player, it is difficult to stop him."

 

Editor:Xiong Qu