Duarte's plan comes together
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Article summary
"Everything is going to plan," according to Portugal coach Orlando Duarte after the hosts defeated Romania to progress to their first-ever semi-final.
Article body
Zoltán Jakab, Romania coach
We believed we could win this game and if not we wanted to put in a good performance. We always knew they would have a big crowd here supporting them and that’s how it turned out. It was a great experience for all my players to come and play here in these finals and I am very proud of them. Before the tournament I thought Portugal and Spain would be the two teams who would make it into the final but now I believe Italy will go on and win it.
Orlando Duarte, Portugal coach
We played three very hard matches to get through this group and I am happy with the way we finished it off. I thought Romania did well but we were too strong for them and more clinical with our finishing. Everything is going to plan and we have a fully fit squad going into the semi-finals. Now we must focus our attention on the Spain match.