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World Cup - Portugal

I would love to see Figo shine at this years World Cup. He deserves it. He plays with an ease and grace that is unique to him alone. Then there's Christano Ronaldo, who is almost frantic compared to Figo, but he's fine tuning his talent and is so young. He will be a star for years and years to come.

High hopes for crowd-pleasing Portugal.

If their performance in qualifying is anything to go by then Portugal must rank as credible contenders at the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ finals. Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side won nine of their 12 matches, finishing seven points clear of their closest rivals Slovakia, and scoring more goals than any other team in Europe.
If the statistic of 35 goals scored and just five conceded was impressive, then so too was the contribution of striker Pauleta whose eleven goals not only put him at the top of the continental scorers’ chart but also took him past the legendary Eusebio’s record of 41 for his country.

Ironically, Portugal’s toughest matches came against the minnows of Liechtenstein. They surrendered a two-goal lead in an embarrassing 2-2 draw in Vaduz in October 2004 and 12 months later needed an 85th minute strike from Nuno Gomes to secure a 2-1 win in Aveiro. The draw in Liechtenstein did not dent their confidence too much, however, as within four days they went and routed Russia 7-1 in Lisbon in what was undoubtedly the finest display of their Group 3 campaign.

Germany 2006 will be the fourth FIFA World Cup finals campaign in their history and Portuguese fans are still waiting for their side to match the exploits of Eusebio and company on their debut appearance in 1966, where they reached the semi-finals in England. The emergence in the early 90s of a golden generation of players led by Luis Figo and Rui Costa raised hopes and in 2000 Portugal were UEFA European Championship semi-finalists.

Read more at: FIFA World Cup - Yahoo!