Portugal satisfy believer Scolari

Luiz Felipe Scolari declared that his Portugal team were halfway to securing their place in the quarter-finals of UEFA EURO 2008™ after opening their campaign with victory over Turkey. "If we get six points we should qualify, so 50 per cent after one match is excellent," said the Brazilian, who praised his players for the technical and physical qualities they showed in securing a 2-0 win in Geneva.

Luiz Felipe Scolari, Portugal coach
We showed good technical quality and were impressive physically. That is thanks to the medical team who do a fantastic job – the players are in really good shape. When a team are dynamic, are working together and are supporting each other but don't win, then there is no reason to criticise them. In this case we did win and we are on the right path. We are 50 per cent of the way towards qualifying. If we get six points we should qualify, so 50 per cent after one match is excellent.

When [captain] Nuno [Gomes] went off, I asked him to give Cristiano [Ronaldo] the armband to give him extra motivation and that is exactly what happened. It gave him a lift. We got an extra dribble, an extra pass and an extra goal. I have taken part in a few tournaments and I know how important it is to win the first match. We are going to keep up this rhythm and are going to be confident, but without getting overconfident. Now we have to watch videos of the Czechs – they play in a different style and let's see if we can keep it going. It would be great if we could play really well against the Czech Republic because in this way we would be through to the second phase.

Fatih Terim, Turkey coach
The first half was quite even and although Portugal had more possession, we didn't give them any real scoring opportunities. In the second half, just as we were trying to establish a footing, we conceded a goal we shouldn't have. We had defenders injured – Servet Çetin was running but injured – and there was a problem with concentration. It was unfortunate the way the goal was scored – we lost the ball and it came back at us. In the first half Bosingwa and [Paulo] Ferreira were coming down the wings and I needed to make some changes in midfield. I wanted to protect Hamit [Altıntop] and Emre [Belözoğlu] by strengthening the midfield and I thought we defended quite well on the flanks in the second half. We were starting to establish some control and doing well in possession when we conceded the opening goal.

The Swiss game becomes very important for us now. We will improve on where we went wrong here and play better against Switzerland. It was not easy to play against Portugal. They have world-class players and are one of the favourites for the tournament. There were things I liked about our performance but other areas where we can improve – we had some openings which could have led to a goal. We tried to attack but when two of your own players fall over each other [as forwards Nihat Kahveci and Tuncay Şanlı did], there is not too much you can do.