Poland approached the game with three strikers, while
Portugal hoped Luis Figo would have a better game than he did against America.
-- GOAL -- 1-0 Pedro Pauleta drove the ball between a diving Jerzy Dudek and his right
post to put Portugal ahead on fourteen minutes.
The rain started to come down stronger and made the playing
conditions harder as Hugh Dallas produced four yellow cards in ten minutes; three of them
going to Portugal.
Poland may have started the game hoping for goals from at
least one of their three strikers, but without much service they were still in a drought.
Half-time: Portugal 1 -- Poland 0
Vitor Baia again looked less than confident going up for
crosses and Poland should have been looking to send more of them in to make him feel
uncomfortable, instead of trying to shoot directly at him.
-- GOAL -- 2-0 Pauleta doubled the score on 65 minutes; getting in the box to slide the
ball between Marek Kozminski and Jerzy Dudek.
-- GOAL -- 3-0 Pauleta earned his hat-trick in the 77th minute -- turning Tomasz Waldoch
twice before shooting across Jerzy Dudek.
-- GOAL -- 4-0 Rui Costa rounded up a great Portuguese performance against a lackluster
Poland by latching onto Capucho's perfect return pass -- 88 mins.
Rui Costa could have made it 5-0 in the last minute of
normal time but took too long trying to go alone and his final shot was cleared off the
line.
Poland ran out of ideas and kissed their World Cup
tournament good-bye, while Portugal still have to beat South Korea or hope that Poland can
beat the United States if Portugal draw with the hosts.
Player of the Match:
Pedro Pauleta -- His goals brought renewed life to Portugal's World Cup campaign.
Yellow Cards:
Piotr Swierczewski (21 mins)
Nuno Frechaut (25 mins)
Jorge Costa (27 mins)
Rui Jorge (31 mins)
Arkadiusz Bak (39 mins)
The Teams:
Portugal:
1 Vitor Baia; 2 Jorge Costa, 5 Fernando Couto, 18 Nuno Frechaut (22 Beto -- 63 mins), 23
Rui Jorge; 17 Paulo Bento, 11 Sergio Conceicao (19 Capucho -- 69 mins), 7 Luis Figo, 20
Petit; 9 Pedro Pauleta, 8 Joao Pinto (10 Rui Costa -- 60 mins).
Poland:
1 Jerzy Dudek; 6 Tomasz Hajto, 21 Marek Kozminski, 15 Tomasz Waldoch, 4 Michal Zewlakow (5
Tomasz Rzasa -- 71 mins); 10 Radoslav Kaluzny (17 Arkadiusz Bak -- 17 mins), 18 Jacek
Krzynowek, 7 Piotr Swierczewski; 9 Pavel Kryszalowicz, 11 Emmanuel Olisadebe, 19 Maciej
Zurawski (14 Marcin Zewlakow -- 56 mins).
