Portugal’s triumph in the 2006 World Cup when the team managed to reach the semi finals for the first time in history will certainly be the guide in South Africa for Deco and his team mates. This time Portugal needs to try even harder to succeed since luck has brought them in probably the hardest group of the whole tournament, playing against Brazil, the Ivory Coast and North Korea.
“The World Cup is an amazing experience, cannot be compared to any other tournament. In the previous competition we had great success, went all the way to the semi final and lost to France by a single goal. Most of our players four years ago are not even coming to South Africa, currently the team is full of young footballers playing for the first time in a World Cup. But the overall quality of Portugal is similar to 2006 despite the lack of experience, and the same applies to our coach Carlos Queiroz. I think we have all the necessary ingredients to succeed. We have never reached the final game and this is why Portugal is not considered as one of the favourites, but we could change that this summer. It is really hard to win the World Cup trophy, every little detail counts at this level, and is exactly why only very few teams have become champions.”
Deco will be playing against Brazil, the country he was born at for the fourth time in his career. “It is a unique experience, I know pretty well how it feels to play against Brazil. I was born Brazilian but got a citizenship later in the country that I grew up as a person and as a football player. The first game of the group stage is the most important in my opinion, if we manage to beat the Ivory Coast we would have great chances to qualify later on.”
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