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Portugal and Brazil progress

The most highly-anticipated group stage encounter was less an exhibition of the beautiful game and more a reminder of their 1966 World Cup meeting when a 25-year-old Pele was kicked off the park by the Portuguese defence.

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"Today's the day to celebrate the fact that Portugal have qualified with a great deal of merit," said Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz, who celebrated with high fives at the final whistle. "It was a just result."

"It was a difficult game," said Brazil coach Dunga. "The Portuguese team defended from the midfield backwards which made it very difficult to penetrate their defence. It was a very tough game right until the very end.

"There were quite a few fouls committed that made it difficult for us. But we had three or four goalscoring opportunities."

Three Portuguese players raced over to suggest the referee book the Brazil defender, which Mexico's Benito Archundia duly did before turning the card to Portugal's Duda for the protests.

Gregg Davies is the Chief Sub Editor of FourFourTwo magazine, joining the team in January 2008 and spending seven years working on the website. He supports non-league behemoths Hereford and commentates on Bulls matches for Radio Hereford FC. His passions include chocolate hobnobs and attempting to shoehorn Ronnie Radford into any office conversation.