Sousa laughs at English efforts

Paulo Sousa claims England's defenders at Euro 2000 were so bad that they reduced him to laughter in their opening match.

Sousa was on the bench when Portugal came back from 2-0 down to beat England 3-2 in Eindhoven.

Sousa said: "The English were a disappointment. They've only got (Paul) Scholes and (David) Beckham - the rest of them are clumsy, slow and easy to get past.

"I was even laughing on the bench when I saw their defenders heading back towards their own penalty area rather than trying to tackle Figo or Rui Costa."

Portugal are in confident mood going into the quarter-finals after three victories from their Group A matches.

Defender Rui Jorge said: "This is the right time for us to win something.

"All the players are individually very mature and very experienced.

"Everyone thinks this is the right time.

"We always had an idea that we could (win all three games) but we cannot deny we thought it would be more difficult."

Portugal will have to do without defender Secretario in the quarter-final against Turkey.

Secretario, who is suffering from an injured right arm, will be replaced in defence by Abel Xavier.