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Portugal were held
at home by Cyprus 4-4 on Friday but it was no surprise as the
Portuguese were without Cristiano Ronaldo and banned coach, Carlos
Queiroz. But stand-in captain, Ricardo Carvalho has pledged on behalf
of his team mates that they will beat Norway today when they file out
at the Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo.

Carvalho, who spoke to UEFA.com said they were unlucky and should have won the game against Cyprus.

“Our focus was good
going into the game, but we started badly, and even though we got into
a winning position we didn’t manage to go on and get the win,” he said.
“We could have scored a fifth goal (when leading 4-3) but didn’t and in
the end we ended up with the draw. We have to be more compact,
especially at the back. We played well going forward but we’re normally
more secure in defence.”

Left-back, Fabio
Coentrao, will miss the game in Oslo because of a thigh injury and they
are still missing Ronaldo, who is out of action for a further two weeks
on account of an ankle injury.

More pressure for Blanc

Laurent Blanc was almost in tears after Belarus taught his team the essence of a smash and grab win.

“We can’t just say
it was a catastrophe. We have to look a little closer at what happened.
We certainly haven’t started well. Indeed after the debacle and the
embarrassment caused by the team to South Africa, this was not what the
doctor ordered,” Blanc said after the game.

“We weren’t able to
take our chances, and when you can’t win a match, you have to make sure
you don’t lose it. Nothing went for us in Friday’s game.

“Today’s game is
important – the decisive games will come towards the end of the
qualifying campaign. A draw against Belarus would have been a mediocre
result, but at least (it) would have allowed us to get off the mark. We
didn’t do that, and we’ll have to make up for that in Bosnia. It’s
difficult to take something positive away from this. We were a little
naïve.”

That naivety showed on the part of both the coach and the players.

Guillaume Hoarau
will be replaced by Karim Benzema and Loic Rémy and Louis Saha are also
out injured but there has been a recall for Lyon’s Jimmy Briand.
Benzema is very keen to get back the adulation of the fans. “I am ready
to fight for my place in both the France team and at Real Madrid.
Things didn’t go well for me last year, but now I really want to play
and I am ready to make the necessary sacrifices,” he said.

Blanc is wary of his teams’ losses in their last four matches and that they have now gone eight games since they last won.

“In this context,
we can’t say we’re going to Bosnia to win. No, we need to show some
humility. We can’t go around talking ourselves up after what happened
on Friday.”

England goes for Swiss encore

After the feel good
atmosphere on account of the 4-0 win over Bulgaria, England coach,
Fabio Capello will be hoping that Wayne Rooney will not be distracted
by the sex scandal and ruin a second win against Switzerland today.
Captain Steven Gerrard is not expecting an easy match against the only
team to beat Spain at the 2010 World Cup. Gerrard said on UEFA.com,
“Internationals away from home are always going to be difficult, I
think Switzerland showed at the World Cup what a good side they are by
beating Spain, so we have to perform at the same level as (against
Bulgaria), and we want that result.”

Capello needs more of the three goals from Jermain Defoe that sank
Bulgaria tonight at the St. Jakob-Park in Basel. British fans had
turned against Capello after the 4-1 thrashing received from Germany at
the World Cup but applauded the team off the pitch after the 4-0 rout
of Bulgaria and the Italian coach must know now that things can quickly
turn from adulation to hate.