Portugal in seventh heaven after routing North Korea

CAPE TOWN: A merciless Portugal tore North Korea to shreds in a 7-0 rout, putting them within reach of the knockout rounds and eliminating the Asian nation from the World Cup.

With Brazil already qualified from Group G, Portugal now have four points to Ivory Coast’s one, leaving Didier Drogba’s team with only an outside chance of making the round of 16. North Korea have lost both their games and will head home after their last match against the Africans.

A Raul Meireles strike put Portugal in front with the Porto midfielder pouncing in the 29th minute. But it wasn’t all one-way traffic, with North Korea creating their own chances as they powered forward on the counter-attack.

The game changed though with three quick second-half goals from Simao, Hugo Almeida and Tiago that left North Korea shellshocked before substitute Liedson banged in the fifth. Captain Cristiano Ronaldo got the sixth, ending his two-year international goal drought, before Tiago made it seven.

Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz, who made four changes with Tiago replacing the injured Deco and Simao, Almeida and Miguel in for Danny, Liedson and Paulo Ferreira, paid tribute to his players. “I’d like to express my great satisfaction to my players for the wonderful way they played, their great attitude, their reverence to the game. It was beautiful football, a great day,” he said. “In terms of self confidence, scoring goals always improves confidence. When we played like we did today, it is obviously a great motivation for the next match.”

Chile close in on last-16

Chile continued their dream World Cup run with a 1-0 defeat of 10-man Switzerland to move within touching distance of the last-16.

The South Americans climbed to the top of Group H after second half substitute Mark Gonzalez finally broke down a steely Swiss defence in the 75th minute.

Gonzalez, who has revived his club career at CSKA Moscow after a disappointing spell with Liverpool, said that things had worked out ideally for him and his team-mates.

“This is fantastic. We prepared hard and I was lucky enough to get the goal today, so what could be better? We had to be patient, but now we can pretty much dream of the last 16,” he said.

Switzerland’s German coach Ottmar Hitzfeld was left deflated about the result but still thinking of reaching the last-16.

“It’s very disappointing but we can still get six points. It depends on us and we have to make sure we get three pojnts against Honduras,” said Hitzfeld.

Switzerland, stunning 1-0 winners over favourites Spain in their first match, were up against it after going a man down on 30 minutes when Valon Behrami was sent off.

Small consolation but the Swiss set a new World Cup record of 559 minutes played without scoring a goal, to overtake Italy’s mark of 550 minutes.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2010.