Portugal held off spirited debutants Angola to open their World Cup campaign with a 1-0 win here on Sunday to place them atop Group D with Mexico.
Updated at 2.30 am, Monday
COLOGNE: Portugal held off spirited debutants Angola to open their World Cup campaign with a 1-0 win here on Sunday to place them atop Group D with Mexico.
Portugal's veteran winger Luis Figo was named Man of the Match by FIFA's Technical Study Group.
Luis Felipe Scolari's side, missing influential midfielder Deco through injury, were quick out of the blocks with Pauleta near to scoring in the opening seconds with an angled shot from the left.
The Paris Saint Germain striker didn't have to wait long before making up for that miss when Luis Figo left Angola defender Jamba for dead with Pauleta tapping in his skipper's cross from close range in the fourth minute.
It was the striker's 47th goal in 83 international appearances.
Portugal were pacey in midfield with some clever trickery from Cristiano Ronaldo, who picked up the first booking of the game, causing Angola trouble.
But just as a rout was in the offing the Africans, having been all at sea, began to find their rhythm.
Star striker Akwa produced an adventurous bicycle kick and then Portugal keeper Ricardo had to be at full stretch to keep out a shot from Andre.
Bbefore the break Angola keeper Joao Ricardo produced an equally fine save to deny the omnipresent Ronaldo to keep the 750-1 underdogs well and truly in it.
Angola coach Luis Oliveiro Goncalves swopped the tireless Akwa for fellow forward Pedro Mantorros on the hour mark, with Scolari bringing on Costinha for Ronaldo.
Angola's Ricardo, who is unattached, did his job prospects no harm at all with another deft intervention to contain a Tiago shot from the edge of the area.
Hard as Portugal tried they were unable to drive home their advantage despite Figo's valuable contribution in midfield.
Suggestions that the survivor of Portugal's so-called golden generation was past it are clearly wide of the mark on the evidence of the 34-year-old Inter Milan veteran's showing.
Despite the loss, Angola have made giant strides since the last time they played their former colonial rulers in an infamous 'friendly' in 2001 in which, with four players sent off, they were losing 5-1 when the game was stopped.
They meet Mexico on Friday with Portugal facing Iran 24 hours later.
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