Angola Vs Portugal - World Cup Report

With much political and cultural talk surrounding the game Angola looked to put some pressure on the Group D favourites early on with some quick passing and through their talisman Aqua looked to counter what the Europeans had to offer.

Almost from the kick off however Portugal used their great offense to pin Angola back into their own half, Pauleta himself almost scored with his first touch of the game inside two minutes, however when his goal came it was all to easy for the French based striker. Seizing on a high ball out of defense Tiago fed Figo who burst past two white shirted players only to pull the ball back for a tap in for the PSG forward.

Scoring early seemed to be a dream start for the Euro 2004 finalists but it turned out to be a much more difficult task than they first thought it. Ronaldo as ever was full of tricks but let down with his final ball and it was Angola who for the next twenty minutes had the better chances.

Using their short passing game the Angolans manufactured a chance for their captain whos speculative overhead kick went over the bar. The debutants at the FIFA World Cup also threated with the long range shooting of Figueiredo and Andre in central midfield.

It was the Manchester United player Ronaldo who came closest to scoring however with a header which hit the cross bar and rebounded to safety. From another cut back from Figo he also found an alert goalkeeper in between the Angolan posts who pushed his shot round for a corner.

Much of the belief which the Angolans seemed to hold was wiped out in the second half as they mainly concerned themselves with defending and conceding only the one goal.

Portugal also seemed happy to settle for a 1-0 win and were booed by sections of their own supporters at times for an over willingness to go backwards. The brilliant Figo however appeared to get the ball moving everytime he was in control of it, sweeping from left to right the Inter midfielder looked back to his best slipping his marker and not allowing himself to be restricted to one position.

Few chances fell either teams way in the second half with Angola removing nearly all their attacking threat meaning their only chances came on the counter, but as Portugal defended it numbers it was pretty much impossible for them to create anything.

Outsiders for the Jules Rimet itself Portugal will have been happy with the scoreline and not to have over exerted themselves ahead of the challenge of Mexico and Iran where as Angola will be pleased that in their first World Cup battle they can at least take away some pride in performing so well against such an established nation.