Portugal boss Paulo Bento has hailed his side’s impact as a whole and refused to single out anyone for praise despite http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cristiano-c9622 Ronaldo’s superb performance.
The Seleccao needed only a draw to secure their place in the knock-out round of the European Championships, while their opponents on the night came looking for a win.
And it was the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Netherlands-c753 who started the better of the two teams and opened the scoring through Rafael Van Der Vaart’s impressive curler from outside the box. The shot was so precise that it left goalkeeper Rui Patricio with no chance and gave the Dutch
reason to celebrate.
However Portugal rallied and it was skipper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Maarten-Stekelenburg-c22998 at his near post.
Having been subdued for the vast majority of the two opening games, the captain more than made up for his below par outings and was a dominating figure throughout the rest of the game, taking on Holland at every chance.
His efforts did not go in vain as the Navigators were finally able to take the lead with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nani-c27299 played a sumptuous pass to the forward and after drifting past one Dutch defender, he ruthlessly bludgeoned the ball
pass Stekelenburg for his second.
While clearly it was the former Sporting Lisbon star who was the talk of the night, coach http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Paulo-c29431 Bento did not praise any individual and claimed that it was a collective team effort.
"The individual effort of players is not important. The issue of the effort players show for their clubs and country we have already talked about so much. We have discussed that enough. I'm proud of what we've done as a team and satisfied that we achieved
our aim brilliantly."
"We have a certain kind of style, identity and ideas. The players put that into practice. Today we can talk about brilliance, it was the best game we have played here. We have been loyal to our spirit and that's what we're proud of,” he said.
Having secured their place in the quarter-finals, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Czech-Republic-c2882, whose form in the last couple of games has been outstanding to say the least.
Tags: