Holders have point to prove

By Andrew Haslam in Blois

Portugal coach Carlos Dinis believes his side's 4-0 win against Ukraine on Sunday might prove the turning point of their UEFA European Under-17 Championship campaign.

Vital victory
The holders had taken just one point from their first two Group B games, having been held to a goalless draw by Austria before succumbing to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of England in their second game. Needing a win in their final match to have any chance of progressing to the semi-finals, Dinis' men found their form, with two Bruno Gama goals and one each from Rui Gomes and Fausto Dias Lourenço securing a comfortable victory.

French test
The three points, together with Austria's 1-0 defeat by England, enabled Portugal to overhaul Paul Gludovatz's team and sneak into the last four on goal difference, setting up a fascinating meeting with tournament hosts France in the semi-finals. In sharp contrast to Portugal's travails, France strolled into the last four by winning all three games, and Dinis is aware that the holders are a side in form.

'Strong team'
"France are a very strong team," the Portugal coach told uefa.com. "However, I think it will be an open match and now we are going to try to do our best. We know the way they play quite well, having played them quite a lot so we know what to expect."

'Found our quality'
Dinis believes that the momentum is now with his side ahead of the game at the Stade Jean Leroi in Blois, saying after the Ukraine match: "Finally my team has found its quality. There were many reasons to explain why we did not play particularly well in the first two matches and we came into this game with a number of problems but the pride of the players enabled them to show their quality and that did the rest."

Turning point
Captain Bruno Gama echoed his coach's view that the game could prove the defining moment of the Portuguese campaign."I am very happy with the two goals that I scored, but the most important was the performance of the team and our qualification for the semi-finals," said the SC Braga playmaker.

'More to come'
"Against Ukraine we finally did what we didn't do in the first two matches, but I still think that there is more to come from this team," the Portuguese captain continued. "We know France quite well because we played against them in the Algarve tournament earlier this year and beat them 2-1, but here it will be completely different."

Nervous start
Rui Gomes also confirmed that the players had been edgy ahead of the game with Ukraine. "We were very nervous at the start, and our anxiety meant that it took us some time to concentrate on the task in hand. But having overcome that we were able to play our own game."

'Find ourselves'
"The team are really happy to have played well and reached the last four, but now it's time to think of the next match," the Boavista FC forward continued. "It is true that we did not play very well in the first two matches, but finally we could find ourselves. We are now optimistic against France."