Côte d’Ivoire-Portugal: Quotes

Côte d’Ivoire-Portugal: Quotes


Sven Goran Eriksson, Côte d’Ivoire coach
It was a very tense match, but honestly I think that if one team was going to win it, it should have been us as we had more chances. I’m satisfied with our performance, our discipline and our organisation throughout the 90 minutes. I would have preferred to take three points, but Portugal are a great team and holding them to a draw is satisfying in itself. As for [Didier] Drogba, yesterday he told me that he’d prefer to stay on the bench, but that if I needed him I could count on him. That’s exactly what I did.

Carlos Queiroz, Portugal coach
How could anyone be frustrated with that result? Everyone saw that it was a match between two of the favourites and a very difficult game. Côte d’Ivoire waited for us to attack them and we tried to build moves and were able to dominate, but it’s difficult to come by chances against a team that’s set up to defend. We’ll need to take more risks in our next match and that goes for both teams. What we need to take out of this is that we’ve collected a point against one of the favourites in the group. Now we need to think about getting a win.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal forward and Budweiser Man of the Match
We knew that they wouldn’t pour forward looking to attack from the start. They were afraid of us in the first half and then opened things up a little in the second, but I think we reacted well. If we didn’t win, it’s only because we were unlucky. We haven’t lost our margin for error with this draw; everything remains open in the group. We just need to continue the good work we’ve been doing up until now.

Didier Drogba, Côte d'Ivoire forward
I’m happy today. We were able to take a point against a Portugal side that was very dangerous, but we showed that we can play some good football and we can now concentrate on the match against Brazil. Physically, I wasn’t at all apprehensive about this moment and going out on to the pitch. If I’d really had even the slightest doubt, I never would have asked to be on the bench. I wouldn’t have taken the risk. The decision to go on as a substitute was taken yesterday evening after discussions with the coach.

Kolo Toure, Côte d'Ivoire defender and captain
It’s difficult to score against a team as well organised as Portugal, and against Brazil we’ll need to defend even more and even better. But we still have total control over our own destiny in terms of going through. If we fight the way we did today and if we’re able to score, it should be possible to get out of this group.

Paulo Ferreira, Portugal defender
It’s a fair result given the performance of both teams. We knew it would be tough against an excellent side and a team full of great players. The most important thing was not to lose this match, and getting a draw is not such a bad result. Obviously, we’ll need to play better in the second match and we know it’ll be difficult against Korea DPR, but we’ll give everything we have to get a victory.