POR: Fernando Couto (65).

TUR: -.

POR: Baia; Paulinho Santos, COUTO, Helder, Dimas; Paulo Sousa, Rui Costa, Figo, Joao Pinto (Porfirio, 76); Sa Pinto (Cadete, 65), Folha (Tavares, 46).

TUR: Rustu; Recep, Oguz (Arif, 70), Alpay, Abdullah; Vedat, Tugay, Sergen, Ogun (Rahim, 46); Hakan, Saffet (Tolunay, 63).

REFEREE: Sandor Puhl (Hungary).

AUDIENCE: 22.670, City Ground, Nottingham.

YELLOW CARDS: Santos, Rui Costa, Figo, Tavares (Portugal); Abdullah, Vedat, Rahim, Tolunay (Turkey).

RED CARDS: NONE.

The first game against Denmark brought thousands of spectators all over the world to worship the skill of Portuguese players, despite the fact the game ended with a draw. Yesterday, Portugal collected all the points, but its game was fabulously bad, maybe following this of the Turks. Portugal has now high chances of advancing to the quarterfinals, and it'll rather improve its game.

The only man who can be marked for good in the Portuguese team was undoubtedly Fernando Couto, Parma's defender. The man was wonderful in the defensive line, denying several Turkish penetrations and closing the shot by Abdullah (79) to a corner; and after 57 minutes, he headed the ball away from the goal-line, after the Turkish header. And he was also the only one to score. This happened after 65 minutes, when Joao Pinto's shot after a short corner was blocked, and Couto volleyed the rebound with his left from 18 meters, a flat ball to the right corner of Rustu, leaving the keeper no chance. A fantastic winner, to say the least.

The other opportunities may be counted on one hand, well, maybe two. Both Pintos, Joao and Sa, missed the frame twice each from good positions; the header of Helder (46) and the hesitating shot of Joao Pinto (61) were superbly saved by Rustu. As for the Turks, the only opportunities of theirs resulted in the failures of Sukur and Saffet; both demanded penalty kicks, and twice Sandor Puhl was right in not awarding them. It was nice to see a professional referee for a change, but this was the one and only thing to be nice in this game. Too bad.

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