Luiz Felipe Scolari called yesterday for Fifa not to ban the Portugal midfielder Deco from the quarter-final clash with England, claiming that the first of the two yellow cards that resulted in his dismissal in the stormy victory over Holland was unjust. "The Portuguese Football Federation, on the basis of the Fifa Fair Play documents, will put in a request to overturn the card for Deco," said Portugal's Brazilian coach.
Scolari felt the Dutch, encouraged by their coach Marco van Basten, breached fair-play etiquette by playing on instead of returning the ball to Portugal after a break in play. Enraged, Deco chased after Johnny Heitinga and brought him down from behind. Deco received a second yellow in the 78th minute for time-wasting.
"We made some disciplinary errors but we do not accept Deco's sending-off," said Scolari. "Deco was sent off unfairly. He got his first yellow card in a move in which Holland should have given the ball back but didn't, at the request of their coach."
He went on: "They accuse us of play-acting but the team that play-acted was Holland. It seems that every foul that we committed was deserving of a card. But it's us that have Cristiano Ronaldo as doubtful [for the England game]."
Maniche, scorer of the winning goal in Sunday's 1-0 win, joined his coach's criticisms. "The referee did not dignify football. I really don't think the sendings-off were just. We lost Costinha and Deco, two great players and friends who will miss the next game. But we will have players who will give their best against England."
One player who will be available is Luis Figo, despite television pictures which appeared to show him headbutting Mark van Bommel. Fifa ruled out further disciplinary action because the referee Valentin Ivanov had issued a yellow card.
Ronaldo is another who may yet feature on Saturday, with the Portuguese camp expressing optimism that he will be fit after a scan on the thigh injured in a reckless foul by Khalid Boulahrouz. "Ronaldo has got muscular swelling in his thigh and we hope that it will ease," said the team doctor Henrique Jones. "He could start to run on Wednesday and train on Thursday or Friday with more intensity. We are hopeful that he will recover."
Gary Neville is expected to rejoin training today after a calf injury forced the full-back to miss England's last three matches.