World Cup Group D - Portugal Makes it to the Next Round (Portugal 2 - Iran 0)

Portugal makes it to the second round to set up a mouth watering match in the second round against either Argentina or Holland.

After a dull first half of dominating the ball, Portugal awoke in the middle of the second half to score a beautiful long range shot from Deco, who recovered from injury to start this game. The Iranians up to that point had kept the Portugese at bay for most periods of the game, where the only threat came from Ronaldo.

Although the Portugese were easily the better side, they never really looked like a side that was going to score many goals. In the 80th minute, the Iranians conceded a penalty and Ronaldo stepped up to score, effectively sealing victory for the Portugese, not that it was ever in doubt.

The 2-0 scoreline was just about right, condering Portugal dominated most of the game and the team that went for the victory. Iran were toothless upfront and had missed their all time top scorer, Ali Daei.

In any case the Portugese haven't shown me enough that they would beat either Argentina or Holland. Maybe they would play better against Mexico without the pressure of having to try so hard to qualify for the knockout stages.