Scolari hails brave Ronaldo Saturday September 10, 2005
Ronaldo in action
Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari paid tribute to Cristiano Ronaldo, who played in a crucial World Cup qualifier against Russia in Moscow hours after the death of his father.
Ronaldo played in the 0-0 draw that leaves Portugal on the threshold of a place in next year's World Cup finals in Germany.
Scolari, who led his homeland Brazil to victory in the 2002 World Cup, told the Portuguese football federation website www.fpf.pt: "Cristiano had the support of the whole team in this important moment of his life."
Scolari was disappointed that the Portuguese could not beat Russia after Alexei Smertin's first-half sending-off but admitted that the job was now almost done with Portugal only needing to win one of their two remaining games, both at home, to qualify.
He said: "We got a good result in a balanced match. Even when they were down to 10 men Russia were still a competitive team.
"Portugal did what they could to win but today we just could not find the goal we needed to win the game - for whatever reason we just could not score.
"We are just three points from qualification and we have two matches to play, both in Portugal."
Portugal next host Liechtenstein in Aveiro on October 8 before playing Latvia in Porto four days later.
