Portugal coach Paulo Bento has declared his players will “fight to the very last minute” against Holland in their quest to qualify for the knockout stages of Euro 2012.
Wednesday night’s 3-2 win over Denmark puts Bento’s side in with a chance of reaching the last eight but they’ll only get there with another maximum point haul against the Dutch in Kharkiv and a Germany victory over Denmark in the other Group B fixture.
Bento maintained his confidence that Portugal will be one of the name on the list of quarter finalists but warned his players must believe in themselves to achieve their desired goals.
“We will fight to the very last minute to achieve our goals,” he told UEFA.com
“I am always very optimistic. If I didn’t believe in the possibilities to succeed, I wouldn’t be here. We have to believe in the possibility to reach our goal, the goal we brought here from the very beginning.
“We have proved enough that we can continue to believe in ourselves. We believe in a great result tomorrow.”
Holland coach Bert van Marwijk knows they still in with an outside chance of making it to the knockout stage despite losing their first two games and says need to win by two clear goals will lead to him altering his tactics and team selection.
However it will be a tall order for the Dutch with Portugal in pole position to make it through and van Marwijk intimated that he’ll simply tell his players to play their own game on the night as they aim to avoid an embarrassing exit from the competition.
“There’s always going to be pressure on me and the players as well. It’s about one game and we know we have to go for it. We know from the start we have to win by a two-goal difference if Germany win.
Playing in a league when you’ve got ten or 20 games is very different to something like this where you’ve got one game left and you’ve got to win 2-0. The tactics we choose will of course be impacted by that.
“We’re just going to play our game and we know what our goal is and then wait and see what Germany do.”
Team News
Portugal have passed defender Miguel Lopes fit after he recovered from a cold meaning coach Paulo Bento now has all 23-players in his squad available to choose from.
Bert van Marwijk has hinted that he could alter the Holland starting XI with Rafael van der Vaart and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar set to start in place of Mark van Bommel and winger Ibrahim Afellay.
Key Players
Pepe
The Real Madrid defender set the ball rolling with the opening goal in Portugal’s win over Denmark on Wednesday but will have to concentrate on his defensive duties against Holland. With the Dutch set to field an attacking lineup it will be Pepe’s job to ensure the Portugal back four remains focused.
Robin Van Persie
Just like at Arsenal the goalscoring burden lies on the shoulders of Van Persie and his late strike against Germany in mid-week gave Holland hope of snatching a draw. He now needs to provide the goals against Portugal to give his country a chance of making it to the last eight.
Prediction: 2-2