Portugal celebrate "sweetest"
draw with Dutch

Richard Waddington

For Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, Portugal's 2-2 draw against The Netherlands with two goals in the dying minutes had all the sweetness of victory.

Top-selling sports daily Bola was even more fulsome. "God exists," ran the headline above a picture of winger Luis Figo, whose penalty on the stroke of time completed a remarkable fightback.

It was not clear whether Bola was elevating the world's most expensive player to divine status or whether it was referring to the near miraculous nature of Portugal's recovery.

With seven minutes to go, the talented Dutch were sitting on a well-earned 2-0 lead and looked set to avenge their loss at home to the Portuguese by the same margin last October.

But whether it was excess of confidence, as Dutch coach Luis Van Gaal suggested, or just tiredness, The Netherlands suddenly lost control of the game, letting the Portuguese bounce back with two goals.

First, Bordeaux striker Pauleta beat the defence to a cross from Porto winger Nuno Capucho to pull one back after 83 minutes, then Figo added the second after Pauleta was judged to have been brought down in the box.

Guterres was among the 45,000-strong crowd in the Antas stadium that erupted as the Real Madrid winger's spot kick curled into the far left-hand corner, beyond the despairing dive of Edwin van der Saar in the Dutch goal.

"This draw has all the sweetness of victory. It was 90 minutes of great suffering but we staged an amazing recovery," said the Premier, an ardent Benfica fan.

Portugal's coach Antonio Oliveira was the first to admit that his team had enjoyed a dose of luck after being outplayed for most of the game.

"We really did not succeed in playing how we wanted to. For 80 minutes, there is no doubt that The Netherlands was the team that deserved to win," he said.

"In the end, a draw was a good result as the Dutch were better collectively and individually," he added.

The Netherlands took the lead in the 17th minute, with Chelsea's Jimmy Hasselbaink scoring from the penalty spot. Barcelona's Patrick Kluivert, who had a fine game, made it two shortly after halftime.

Some Portuguese commentators were surprised that when Oliveira rang the changes in his line-up in the second half in a bid to boost the attack, van Gaal responded in kind, giving his side an even more attacking feel.

Deportivo Coruna frontman Roy Makaay replaced lively winger Boudewijn Zenden and defensive midfielder Mark van Bommel gave way to Paul Bosvelt as the Dutch went in search of a third goal that never came.